SWOST - Sport Without Stereotypes, is an Erasmus+ Sports project aimed at, leading a tangible social transformation in the mindset of European sport organisations at all levels in increasing people’s awareness on gender stereotyping and discrimination. The ultimate output of the project is the creation of a set of online tools that provide self-assessment and guidance for sports clubs and associations to improve their gender behaviours, regulations and policies.

In particular, the project addresses the cross-sectorial cooperation of 11 partners in 9 countries, in order to achieve the following objectives:

● Promote and increase the participation of males and females in sports typically categorized like “gender based sports”, with a specific focus on young people;
● Empower the skills of youngsters, by raising awareness and consciousness in their sports choices, uproot gender stereotype perceptions, which could influence young people and their families in the selection of a sport to practice;
● Underline successful cases, share the experiences and the effective best practices of sports associations in the field of gender mainstreaming;
● Create a self-assessment online tool able to guide sport associations. The online tool will redirect users - in a customized manner - to existing tools, good practices and resources applied in other geographical or sectorial contexts, also with important goals of progressive networking and capacity building of the actors involved at all levels.
● Monitor and improve the state of art of gender policies used by European sports associations and the beneficiaries of the Sport without Stereotypes/SWOST project;
● Raise the awareness about homophobia and gender-based violence that happens in sports clubs.

The official webpage of the project SWOST is HERE

On May 5 of this year, both directions of the Restart Sport Engine in EU RUN competition ended:

1^st direction – according to kilometer amount for the specified period from 12 April to 5 May and

2^nd direction – according to the marked segment in the length of 6.32 km at a convenient time in the same period.

The aim of this competition was to involve people in physical activities and maintain the spirit of the competition, if not together, then at least remotely.

Although both directions of the competition took place remotely, the award ceremony due to the request of several participants was organized in presence, which gave joy to all the winners, longing for socialization and community, as well as positive emotions.

On May 13, participants of the Restart Sport Engine in the EU RUN competition were awarded separately in two cities in Salacgriva and Limbazi in an order to ensure maximum compliance with all national restrictions. From April 12 to May 5, participants collected running kilometers at a time and place convenient for them through the program Strava profile. The kilometers had to be submitted to the administration of Limbazi and Salacgriva regional sports school. A total of 97 participants took part in this direction of the competition, which were awarded in four age groups. See the winners and full participants results of the competition HERE.  

The very next day - on the afternoon of May 14, at Limbaži Canoe base the participants of the remote running competition Restart Sport Engine in EU RUN, who had run a 6.32 km long segment, were also awarded. Participants in this competition were awarded in three age groups. The promotion prize for the very first runner of the segment went to Ieva Ozola, who also represented the local newspaper "Auseklis" at the award ceremony and later described the event in detail in the newspaper. Sandija Zaļupe, the Latvian partner coordinator of the Restart Sport Engine in EU project, received an award from the Olympic Center "Limbaži" for promoting cooperation and renewal of the sports movement in Limbaži. Olympian Kristaps Zaļupe also received a thanks award from OC "Limbaži" for marking the track and popularizing the competition both among the city residents and on social networks. 35 participants responded to the invitation to run the distance of 6.32 km at any time of their choice from April 12 to May 5. Most of the participants ran the segment twice, but some even three times. A participant of the competition Niks Zauls, who won the 2nd place within the men's competition in the age group of 19 – 45, admitted that the track was quite easy and very pleasant, and that he ran it twice. Nick said he would definitely take part another time. The winner of this age group was Jānis Olengovičs, but the 3rd place winner – Māris Ādamsons. Alise Putraima won the women's competition in the same age group, Oksana Groma won the 2nd place, and Dārta Konošonoka won the bronze medal.

Whereas Roberts Glāzers won the young men’s competition the age until 18 and also became the absolute winner of the RSE RUN competition. Roberts also admitted that this segment was quite easy, because he has used to run in mountainous areas on a daily basis. Adrians Zviedris took the 2nd place, but Kristaps Vīksne, whose main sport is kayaking, ranked the 3rd. Līva Puriņa became the winner of the young women’s competition and became the absolute champion of the competition, Krista Bērziņa, whose main sport is kayaking too, won the 2nd place, and Rebeka Zandte won the bronze medal.

Normunds Zauls won the gentlemen's competition in the age group of 46 and above, Andris Mežgailis won the silver medal, but Gatis Lozbergs was the third. As to ladies of the same age group, there were only two participants, where the winner was Baiba Mežgaile, but the 2nd place was won by Liene Lipska.

See the results of all participants of the competition HERE.

An article about the competition and the winners in the local newspaper "Auseklis" read HERE.

PHOTOS from the competition find HERE, but immortalized moments from the race, interviews with participants and award ceremony in VIDEO WATCH HERE.

On the 13th May LSIIDP held the 4th activity of "Today I'm Your Teacher of Sport" of the WOW Europe project. Finally, LSIIDP was able to held the planned activity due to the summer weather conditions for the 4th activity was planned on volleyball elements. Since the third activity was so successful in re-uniting a basketball team that because of the restriction period, limited physical activity practices and cancelled competitions, almost fell apart, LSIIDP team decided to help another group - two volleyball groups of 14 - 15 year old girls from Limbazi State Gymnasium and Limbazi Secondary School, that faced similar obstacles as the boys' basketball team.
A famous athlete - an Olympian, kayaker Kristaps Zalupe, held a practice with two volleyball groups regularly trained by two sport teachers Inta Mežgaile and Ineta Sprancmane. The practice gave a fresh attitude towards the regular training process starting with a speech of the Olympian, who said: "Your input and effort in physical activity is significant. Your attitude matters. Let us hope it is all gonna be ok soon, and we will have sport events and normal practices again. You only need to be a little patient. Do go on and help your teachers to go through this as well."
The activity is memorized in a video HERE. And how much fun we had, you can also hear on the recording. We had much laughter, much fun, much sun, and LSIIDP team believed this is a beginning of a new era of the physical activity life of these girls and their teachers.
Thanks to the WOW Europe project, we have proved to ourselves, to the other 9 project participant countries and to the EU Member States, that if you want, you can!