Athletics 4 Health

Background In recent years we have observed a decrease in physical activity among children and adolescents as well as adults. This is one of the main reasons, in addition to bad eating habits, for the increase in the number of overweight and obese people. The basis for creating the project was to use athletics as the grassroots sport, simple and safe for everyone to practice. Objectives Main objectives of the project were:•Increasing the level of physical activity of children and adolescents aged 7-15,•Activation of sports organizations that have the greatest impact on the physical activity of children and adolescents aged 7-15,•Creating a "A strategy to increase physical activity among children and adolescents through athletics", addressed to national sports associations, sports clubs and associations, schools and parents. Implementation Implementation of the project was divided to three parts:- Analysis of the sport resources in each of the project's countries,- Analysis of the sport needs in each of the project's countries,, - Creating the document "A strategy to increase physical activity among children and adolescents through athletics", based in the above analysis. Achievements The result of the project is a document, Strategy, that allows you to get acquainted with both the resources and sports needs in given countries, contains examples of "good practices" and proposals for systemic solutions that are recommended to be introduced in order to use athletics as an ideal sport to counteract the decline in physical activity among children and youth.