WoW Europe PEDALIADA 11.09.2021.

The greatest event of the WOW EUROPE project was activity PEDALIADA - a cycling event, held simultaneously in all ten participating countries. The event took place on the 11th September. Latvia held the event in Limbaži town in two simultaneous routes. The first route was scheduled around the town's lake 'Lielezers', which made a biking distance of 13 kilometres on remote, almost empty country roads and forest trails, which allowed to organize this route without helmets and make the event more joyful for children and young people to whom this route was meant. The other route was scheduled around the town Limbaži, making a cycling distance of 16 kilometres for grown-ups. Latvia covered 69 participants in total, which may be considered a high number taking into account that only six days prior to  the Pedaliada the greatest yearly cycling and mountain biking event 'Unity Ride' was held near Limbaži, leading one of the routes through Limbaži. Therefore, the initial aim of LSIIDP was to organize a simple event on the contrary to the yearly 'Unity Ride'.

Respondents of the feedback questionnaire confirmed that the event was joyful and that they would wish to participate in another one again.

Follow the event and what joy we had HERE.

RSE: Opening conference in Latvia 23rd - 25th August 2021

Finally, the RSE project, with the main aim of relaunching the sports movement in the European Union after all restrictions, is holding an inaugural conference, originally scheduled for March. The conference will take place from August 23 to 25 in Sigulda, Latvia. The conference will be attended not only by the project consortium from all five member states - Romania, Greece, Spain, France, Latvia, but also by the Deputy State Secretary, Director of the Sports Department of the Ministry of Education and Science Edgars Severs and LSIIDP Board. The guest lecturer of the conference Eva Nolendorfa, Personnel Manager of Brabantia Ltd. Latvia will share her experience in promoting physical activities in the company also during the pandemic, observing all the restrictions set by the country.

The project consortium, in turn, will discuss the mobility dates and the teams represented and their composition, as well as the objectives to be achieved. A particularly important issue to be addressed will also be the dissemination activities of the project in order to reach not only the target audience mentioned in the project, but even a wider one, taking into account the multifaceted nature of the project consortium.

In order to promote cultural diversity and increase knowledge about the customs and cultural events of other countries, the project team will go on a tour of Sigulda City.

See the event in the gallery HERE.

SWOST: Women's interest in Olympics is growing 05.08.2021.

Hong Kong: A survey released Wednesday shows that women are becoming more interested in the Olympics and will start in the Japanese capital at the end of next week, so about as many women as men are enthusiastic about sports festivals. ..

Data analysis firm Nielsen Sports said that 45% of women in the world’s largest economy are interested in the Games, which will be held from July 23 to August 8 this year.

This figure is only 3 points less than the number of men who were interested in an event that was postponed for a year due to a pandemic when the survey was conducted in May.

Lindsey Douglas, head of the Nielsen Sports brand, said: “While this year’s Tokyo Olympics differ in many ways from previous Olympics, the potential for increasing gender equality in sports remains important.

“Men and women have about the same chances of winning medals, and the Olympics provide the most gender-balanced fan base of any major event.”

According to a Nielsen survey, the Olympic Games are the most popular sporting event in the world, with 47% of respondents in 13 of the 15 wealthiest countries interested in or very interested in the Summer Olympic Games. I have.

That number far exceeds the NBA, the next most popular non-Olympic event. In the NBA, 33% of people are interested. However, only 17% of women are interested in the US Basketball League.

At the Tokyo Olympics, more medals will be awarded to women as the International Olympic Committee () Edge close to gender equality.

Women’s events account for 156 and 494 gold medals available in Tokyo, and men’s events account for 165 gold medals out of a total of 530 gold medals.

The IOC has also introduced an additional mixed event that allows more women to win medals.

Women’s interest in the Olympics is growing, the research report says.

BMX: International seminar on training safe 06.-07.09.2021.

BMX project pretends to promote education in and through sport with special focus on skills development, with emphasis in coach training to improve the quality of sport career development and safety of young athletes. In this sense, the International Seminar on Training Safe taking place on the 6th and 7th September aims to contribute to the knowledge and dissemination of best practices in training. Conferences, round tables and workshops are programmed to deal with diferent aspects of safety as the adequacy of loads, first aids or the evaluation of training.

The International Seminar on Training Safe invites researchers to send contributions in the form of oral communication or poster. The contributions must be related to the three topics of the seminar:

Training
Environment
Sport facilities

These contributions will be presented virtually. There will be a 100 euros award to the best poster and the best oral communication. The scientific comitte will be in charge of this decission.
The winner will be announced during the final session of the seminar.

The international conference is open to all interested parties by registering in the offical homepage of the conference. Join us HERE! The programme of the conference is available HERE by choosing section "PROGRAMME".

SWOST: Pink offers to pay fines for Norwegian women’s beach handball team 27.07.2021.

European Handball Federation fined players €1,500 for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms

Pop star Pink has offered to pay the “sexist” fines handed out to the Norwegian women’s beach handball team after they refused to wear bikini bottoms while playing.

The European Handball Federation, the sport’s governing body, fined the team €1,500 (£1,295) last week for “improper clothing” at the European Beach Handball Championships.

The American singer voiced her support for the women’s team for refusing to follow the official rules forbidding female beach handball players from wearing shorts like their male counterparts.

She tweeted “I’m very proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team for protesting the very sexist rules about their ‘uniform’. The European handball federation should be fined for sexism.” She added that she would be “happy to pay” the team’s fines.

According to uniform regulations in the rules of the game, women must wear bikini bottoms and a sports bra when playing official games. Men can wear shorts and a vest shirt.

The Norwegian Handball Federation subsequently said that it was prepared to cover the fines, backing their players’ kit choices in a post to the team’s Instagram page.

“We are very proud of these girls who during the European Championships raised their voices and announced that enough is enough!

“We at NHF stand behind you and support you. Together we will continue to fight to change the rules for clothing, so that players can play in the clothes they are comfortable with.”

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the Norwegian team thanked Pink and wrote: “Wow! Thank you so much for the support.”

Player Katinka Haltvik told the Norwegian media outlet NRK that her team’s decision to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms was “very spontaneous” and that they “felt threatened by the regulations”.

“People cheered on us for going in front of several teams and taking the brunt. Not all teams can afford to pay such fines,” Haltvik said. “[Handball] should be an inclusive sport, not an exclusive one.”