ATR Extra: 1st ISF U15 World School Sport Games – Belgrade 2021

ISF’s main approach is to motivate youth with the aid of schools to practice sport for a long-term heathy lifestyle. Knowing the fact that only 24% of younger age groups are engaged in sport or physical activity at schools or universities, the situation is to be considered as serious. Additionally, 45% of young Europeans say they don’t practice more sport regularly due to lack of time. That is why, we must provide more opportunities to school children to be more physically active inside schools. For a lot of youth, school is the only location in which they practice sport in a structured manner. The drop of the practice in teenage years especially for girls must be tackled. Based on 50 years of experience and the organisation of 17 editions of the multi-sport event, the Gymnasiade aimed at 16-18-year-olds, and more than two hundred world championships in over 30 sports.

Taking into consideration these facts and the new offers of entertainment that have appeared in the recent years that are contributing to a decrease in physical activity and the learning and understanding of the values of sport, ISF has decided to create an event for the age category of U15 (13 to 15 years old). This event is built on the balance between daily sports competition framed by the international federations and national sports federations of Serbia and a very elaborate educational program. The structure of competitions in each of the 14 sports has been designed to end at 3pm in order to give the opportunity to all participants to enjoy the twenty educational activities included in the Fun and Skills Zone which is at the heart of the event and is located in the historical location of the Kalemegdan fortress. Part of the activities are organised with some of ISF strategic partners such as United World Wrestling, World Badminton Federation, International Fair-Play Committee, Global Esports Federation, and our partner Kinder Joy of Moving.

The educational day which is traditionally a day free of competition in ISF has been planned for September 15th. On that day two major events will take place, the ISF School Sport Forum and the “Be Together” Ceremony.

The School Sport Forum’s main topic is: “School sport – the springboard for a healthy lifestyle”, the development of this main topic will be done through two panel sessions organised to focus on “sport values in every classroom” and “healthy lifestyle habits for students”. Representatives of the main ISF stakeholders will exchange their point of views and present their organisation’s main actions. We can already announce the attendance of Kady Tounkara, WADA Chair of Education Committee; Arkady Dvorkovich, President of the World Chess Federation; Serhiy Shkarlet, Minister of Education for Ukraine; Mr. Karim Herida, Ministry of Sport of France (DIGES); Ms. Florencia Van Houdt, Head of the Sport UNit EU Commission; David Cabello, BWF Board Member; Mr. Andreas Zagklis, the International Basketball Federation Secretary General; Nicolas Messner, International Judo Federation Media Director, Ms. Caterina Pesce, University “Foro Italico” of Rome, Italy (representing Kinder) and Nancy McLennan from Unesco. The Forum will be opened by two Serbian Ministers, Vanja Udovičić Minister of Youth and Sport and Branislav Ružić Minister of Education.

The “Be Together” ceremony, on September 15th, will be acting as a substitute for the traditional opening and closing ceremonies. Indeed, to have all participants in attendance and to avoid creating two major gatherings to comply with the safety measures, this ceremony has been scheduled at the midpoint of the event. The denomination refers to the new motto of the IOC adding the word “Together” to the traditional IOC motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” reflecting the solidarity.

Athletics, Badminton, Basketball and 3X3, Chess, Football, Judo, Karate, Orienteering, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleyball and Wrestling. From these events Olympic Channel will live stream the Basketball, Basketball 3x3, Football, Judo and Wrestling competitions. As is tradition at ISF events, the Fair Play Medals will be presented in each sport in cooperation with the International Fair Play Committee and the Fair Play Trophy “Kinder Joy of Moving” to the delegation that has demonstrated outstanding behaviour and respect towards their opponents throughout their event, within the sport competition as well as outside.

ISF President, Laurent Petrynka, member of the IOC Olympic Education Commission:

“To achieve its objectives, the ISF has always practiced a dual approach, bottom-up and top-down. Indeed, it is with the objective of, being as close as possible to the youngest populations, of being engaged for the continuous training of physical education teachers, ensuring the quality of sports facilities and for encouraging cross collaboration and relations between the sport movement and the educational institutions and organisations in charge of school sport and physical education, that ISF is proposing new events. Only with ISF full commitment to sharing Olympic Values and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDG 3- Good health and well-being, SDG 4 - Quality education, SDG 5 Gender equality, SDG 17 partnerships for the achievement of objectives) will we be able to achieve these objectives .”

To follow the event: https://events.isfsports.org/u15-world-school-sports-games

Presented by International School Sport Federation