Romania has one of the lowest percentages in Europe when it comes to
\npracticing sports, either as a leisure activity or professionally. The
\nconsequences can be easily seen in the increasingly precarious health of the
\nyounger generation and Romania’s results in international sports competitions.
\nDue to a shortage of athletes, Romania has not won a medal in world
\ncompetitions in athletics, gymnastics and wrestling for many years. In football
\nand rugby, Romania is in the grey area of world rankings, with national sides
\nbeing a source of constant disappointment. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
To support sports and physical activity in general, events were also
\nstaged in Romania a few days ago as part of the European Week of Sport. At the
\nopening, we asked Valeria R\u0103cil\u0103 van Groningen, who was Romania’s Olympic
\nrowing champion in 1984 at the Los Angeles Games, how hard it is today to draw
\nchildren to sports: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It’s very difficult at the moment, for other temptations are bigger for
\nyoung people today. An event such as this encourages physical activity, and we
\nknow that in Romania we have children who suffer from heart diseases and
\nobesity and we hope such events will encourage them do to more physical
\nactivities, not necessarily become Olympic champions, but practice sports for
\npleasure and if they are attracted to a certain sport, pursue it
\nprofessionally.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The great former fencer and 1996 Olympic champion Laura Badea told us:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
First of all they have to want to do some form of physical activity, and
\nthat means more health, less need of hospitals, less need of medicine. Children
\nmust understand that sport is an education. Not necessarily professionally, but
\npracticing a sport helps you organise your time better, be more active, have a
\nhealthy mind in a healthy body, and also, if they want to achieve results, it
\nis a launch pad, a starting point for those who truly wish to achieve great
\nresults.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Let’s just add that the European Week of Sport is an initiative of the
\nEuropean Commission aimed at promoting sports and physical activity around
\nEurope. The project forms part of the
\nEuropean Union’s new #BeActive campaign and promotes a healthy and active
\nlifestyle and raises awareness about the importance of sports and an active
\nlifestyle for the health and wellbeing of communities. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Week of Sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":277218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[28907],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-118414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n