Fit4Health

The Fit4Health project on the health and wellbeing of young performance athletes ran between January 2014 and June 2015. Funded by the EU Sport Unit under its Preparatory Actions in the Field of Sport fund, Healthy Stadia worked with 5 European core partners and another 5 sports clubs to produce a new set of guidelines concerning the protection and injury prevention of young athletes, plus related issues such as anti-doping, nutrition and mental health.

The guidelines were then applied and tested by partners involved in the following sports: volleyball, cricket, gymnastics, pesappalo (Finnish baseball), and basketball.

The guidelines were adopted by UK partner club – Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC) – in early 2015, focussing on how positive psychology can be applied to coaching techniques and additional levels of support for young performance athletes within the area of mental health and wellbeing. Healthy Stadia also hosted a half day workshop on mental health in sport in May 2015 as a one of the final actions of the Fit4Health project.

The project came to a close at an International Conference held in Ancona, Italy on 11th June, where the project’s guidelines for healthier sports environments and ‘Golden Rules’ were presented to an audience of sports professionals and media, including representation from the Italian Olympic Sports Association.