European Anti-Doping Generation

The European anti-doping generation (E.D.G.E.) was a twelve-month partnership co-funded by the ErasmusPlus Sport Programme of the European Commission that involved partners from 4 different countries (Italy, Latvia, Austria and Bulgaria) and aimed to promote an anti-doping culture among young athletes and sport instructors. The core of this project consisted in developing trainings and meetings for young athletes aged 15-19 years old and sport instructors in order to promote important skills such as managing stress and frustration, learning from failure, team work and turning mistakes into stepping stones for success. These just mentioned skills are the foundation to build a sport culture against doping and against any counterfeit sport performance.EDGE wants to explore and apply an alternative approach. Project partners believe that a long-term solution to the prevention of doping can only be reached by means of educational paths. The latter can foster anti-doping behaviours and create a strong anti-doping culture. The aim of the project is promoting a sport culture based on fair-play and ethic behaviours and discouraging any degenerative form of sport that can threaten young athletes’ health.EDGE also approaches doping issues from a positive mindset. It focuses on education rather than prohibition. That is, instead of addressing young athletes with sentences such as “Don’t use this!” or “Don’t do that!”, which can come across as negative and intimidating, the project will help them find new solutions, understanding that a number of options and actions are available to succeed in an ethical way. For this reason, we are going to promote activities targeted both to young sport practitioners and instructors based on acquiring important skills such as managing stress and frustration, learning from failing, team work, concentrating and turning mistakes into starting points toward success. The methods used were inspired to experiential learning and peer learning. The project involved directly 20 young sportsmen/sportswomen aged 15 – 19 years old and 20 instructors in each country (for a total of 80 sport practitioners and 80 coaches). In addition to these people, thanks to the dissemination actions, the project has reached many other local partners.