A group of 25 young Europeans met end of September in Orsay near Paris to participate at the Sport Plays Mixed project, one-week training course focused on gender equality in sports. The initiative was lead and coordinated by several French organisations, in cooperation with other partners, including the European University Sports Association (EUSA) and ENGSO Youth. Youth participants came from five different European countries and facilitated by young leaders from four other countries.

The non-formal education training course which also started and promoted the European Week of Sport and the #BeActive campaign, used education through sport methodologies in order to deliver a clear message among the participants that sport can play mixed.



As an outcome of the seminar, the participants drafted a position paper entitled Youth Recommendations for Equality Through Mixed Participation in Sport where specific recommendations to the different actors in the sports field are given.



The training course allowed participants to share their experiences, learn from others, receive first-hand examples of mixed sport, evaluate their experiences and come up with recommendations of how to create more mixed participation in sport. Participants were also able to experience mixed sport event first-hand by observing and evaluating a sport tournament organised by Passe-Sport in cooperation with schools in the greater Paris region which brought together 65 children aged between 9 and 14.



This case study assisted the young people in providing an example of mixed participation and how they could adapt or implement it in their local context.



On Saturday, October 3, the project was closed by a conference title “Re-thinking and re-inventing sport: a key to promote a sense of living together, special focus on co-education and gender diversity”. The conference was attended by over 80 participants and was officially opened by representatives from national project organizers: Mr Baptiste Tuffereau, President of AEMSO, Mr Julien Maaza, President of Passe-Sport, and Mr Laurent Beauvais, President of ANESTAPS.



Following the welcoming speeches, two keynote speakers gave their speech on identity and interactions in the EU by Mr Jean-Pierre Faugere, Vice-President of the Paris Sud University and on building a fair society together by Mrs Olga Trostiansky, President of the French Coordination for the European Women’s Lobby.



As a main body of the conference, a debate composed by a panel of five experts: Mr Laurent Petrynka, Director of UNSS and President of International Sport School Federation, Mr Andrej Pisl, Communications & Project Manager of the European University Sports Association, Mr. Xicu Colomar, EA Young Leaders Coordinator and ENGSO Youth Board Member, Mrs Carole Bretteville, representative of the French Olympic Committee and the French Federation for Company Sport & Mr Jacques Cortie, CEO of Sportiva-infos. Ms Carole Ponchon and Mr Maixent Genet moderated the debate, focusing it on three main topic areas: Innovation at the service of a more consistent and nurturing practice; Training and promoting as cornerstone for the development of diversity and coeducation in sport and Sport of tomorrow, towards a greater variety of practices.



In the debate part the activities of EUSA were presented, giving a good practice example of the European Universities Games and Championships, which offer participation to both male and female student athletes, provide opportunities in mixed competitions in some sports, and also incorporate education, cultural and social activities, helping to bridge the gender gap through sport. Last but not least, the SCORE project was presented as a practical example of cooperation on European level tackling gender equality, with special focus on coaching.



The localised initiative successfully reached a wider context with the project, generally coordinated by Mr Romain Fermon and for the conference also by Ms Carole Ponchon, with participation of the youth participants, facilitators and partner organisations. The project received support by the European Commission through the Youth exchange opportunity in the Erasmus+ programme and Paris Sud University. It was co organised between Passe-Sport and Association of Management Students Orsay Sport (AEMSO), National Sports Sciences and Physical Education Students Association (ANESTAPS), French Union of School Sport (UNSS), European University Sports Association (EUSA) and Youth division of the European Non Governmental Sport Organisation (ENGSO Youth). For more information please see #SportPlaysMixed.