European Sport for all Games

Fryslân already warmed up for the event a year before the European Sports for All Games (ESFAG) started, startup november 2017. The Preparation Programme, november 2017 til juli 2018 focused on sports for the vulnerable and inactive groups of residents of Fryslân. The first TAFISA European Sports for All Games (ESFAG) was held in Fryslân between 3-7 August 2018. Participants from twenty countries (Belgium, Germany, England, Finland, France, the Netherlands/Fryslan, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italie, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Schotland, Turkey, Spain, Slovania demonstrated their traditional sports and games. Under the auspices of Sport Fryslân, NOC*NSF and TAFISA it was a great success. Thanks in part to the efforts and hospitality of the people of Friesland, the new international event proved it could work, and it provided great added value for recreational sport.Anne Jochum de Vries, director Sport Fryslân/member LOC and responsabel for the organisation: Grutsk [pride]. Slagge [success]. These are the first words when we look back at the TAFISA European Sports for All Games (ESFAG)in the Netherlands. I am only now becoming aware of what we experienced together. The concept, which started as the Fryske [Frisian] vision of the TAFISA World Sport for All Games, was a challenge in many ways. It was well-received in this European version of the World Sport for All Games, and the Frisian sports and mienskip [community] played an important role. ESFAG inspired and connected people and organisations in the way we had in mind. We wanted to bring the sports and games to those places, where there could be enjoyed by many people. We wanted to involve people for whom playing sports or being a volunteer is not always normal. We wanted to exchange knowledge, make new friendships, give traditional sports and games a stage, and take these sports and games further. And we did all of that together. Together with the participants, supervisors, ambassadors, volunteers, host families, organisations and sponsors.We look back on the first European Sports for All Games in words and images. Of course, we want to do this because we also want to reminisce for a while. For example, I personally like to think back to the G-sailing (sailing for disabled people) award ceremony, to the Frisian storytellers who shared their own story with the knowledge safari visitors, and all the great conversations I had and enthusiastic stories I heard.But we also want to look ahead. What have we learned? How can we take what we achieved with and through these Games even further? And what can we do as an energetic follow-up to the foundations we have already laid? How can we make even more sustainable connections to make cultural sports a means, and pleasure a basis?!The idea for ESFAG arose when Fryslân lost the competition to host the 2016 World Sport for All Games to Jakarta. The thought at the time was, maybe we can organise a European version. TAFISA was, in fact, impressed by the Frisian’s concept–despite the fact that the choice did not fall on Fryslân–. “We started our presentation with an image of a group of handball players in a small village, and a Frisian cow, of course; ‘This is who we are and where we come from.’ Jakarta started their presentation with an image of a large stadium with 100,000 people waving flags”, says Anne Jochumde Vries. “And that was exactly the difference. Our concept was to bring sports to where the peopleare. We wanted to connect the people who participate in the sports to the inhabitants. This was sowe could get them moving.” When there was sufficient support in Fryslân, and the politicians supported it, the idea eventually became part of the bid for Leeuwarden-Fryslân to be European Capital of Culture in 2018. NOC*NSF also joined in and, with a subsidy from the European Union (from the Erasmus Program) See https://we.tl/t-1uow6SKnaJ