April 2021
Originating fro
m the findings of the EU Collaborative Partnership “Media as a channel of Athletes’ Dual Careers promotion and education (EdMedia, 603456-EPP-1-2018-1-LT-SPO-SCP)”, the third EAS Virtual Cafè attracted around 80 European dual career experts.
Andrej Pisl, Communications and Projects Manager at European University Sports Association – EUSA and Member of the Ed Media Collaborative Partnership, illustrated the aims of the project and its educational platform (https://www.lsu.lt/en/project-edmedia/edmedia-online-platform/), which could be useful for both student-athletes and media professionals. He also moderated the contributions of Andreas Küttel and Flavia Guidotti, who presented their personal experiences as athletes and coach, respectively.
Andreas Küttel, former Swiss ski-jumping world champion and five-time Olympic athlete, presented his personal experience and claimed that student-athletes can benefit from unveiling their academic career to better attract the attention of the media and general public. As an Assistant Professor at SDU, and sports psychological consultant, he also recognized the need to educate student-athletes on the role of media and social media to construct a positive image including also their dual career.
Flavia Guidotti, former volleyball player and actual physical trainer of the AO THIRAS Santorini Volleyball team (Greece), focused on the role of dual career in team sports that provide limited revenues to athletes if any. As a dual career expert, she presented her experience with elite athletes as students, who previously lacked support at the sport and academic level. In considering the role model of successful student-athletes crucial for youth athletes, Flavia envisaged a wise use of media and social media to spread the message that the combination of elite sport and academic career is achievable.
Petra Robnik, Head of Athletes Career Centre / Secretary of Slovenian Olympians Association at Olympic Committee of Slovenia, commented thatproper communication can be beneficial not only for athletes but also for different dual career stakeholders, who could profit from information on successful dual career programmes and the outcomes of dual career projects.
Flowing a general discussion, Andrej Pisl summarized the outcomes of the café and invited the participants to attend the fourth EAS Virtual Cafè to be organized next June and the Annual Conference to be held next September in Lisbon, European Capital of Sport 2021.
Third EAS Online Cafè
“Media Role in the Promotion of the European Dual Career Culture”
Zoom Meeting April 26, 2021 (from 12:00 CETS)
12:00 Welcome
Andrej Pisl – Communications and Projects Manager at European University Sports Association – EUSA and Member of the Ed Media Collaborative Partnership.
12:20 The former athlete and actual dual career scholar’s view
Andreas Küttel – Swiss former ski-jumping world champion and five-time Olympic athlete, Assistant Professor at SDU, and sports psychological consultant.
12:40 The coach’s view
Flavia Guidotti – Physical trainer of the AO THIRAS Santorini Volleyball team (Greece) and dual career scholar.
13:00 General discussions
13:25 Concluding Remarks and announcement of next EAS online café
The Partners of the Erasmus+ funded project ELCAMP (A Self-employment Career Option for Elite Athletes: Innovative Sport-focused Entrepreneurship Bootcamp) met virtually for a kick-off meeting in March. EAS was represented by dr. Mojca Doupona and dr. Tibor Kozsla.
The ELCAMP project focus to strengthen the skills and competencies of elite and Paralympic athletes on sport-focused entrepreneurship with innovative methods and connecting athletes among themselves and with other people interested in entrepreneurship. The project objectives directly address the target group of EAS. EAS will be actively involved in the pilot implementation phase of the project. EAS will also lead to the dissemination of project outputs both at the athlete’s level and at the level of sports organizations in Europe.
EL CAMP partners are Collective Innovation AS (Norway) in cooperation with European Paralympic Committee (Austria), Fundacion Universitaria San Antonio (Spain), Hogskolen I Molde (Norway), Lietuvos Sporto Universitetas (Lithuania), Olimpijski Komite Slovenije Zdruzenje Sportnih Zvez (Slovenia).
On April 6 the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace is celebrated having a white card as a symbol to emphasize the positive values of sport, which unify individuals regardless of gender, ethnic, social or religious differences.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the SOS project celebrates the Sports Schools for Development and Peace event (@peaceandsport, @SportOpensSchool, #WhiteCard, #April6, #OnlyTogether) with a video involving students from the Hungarian (Kolcsey Ferenc Gimnazium, Budapest), Italian (IIS Newton Pertini, Camposampietro), Portuguese (Externato Cooperativo da Benedita), and Romanian (Liceum cum Program Sportiv, Bacau) Partner high schools.
Through its involvement in the European ERASMUS+Sport Collaborative Partnership More Than Gold (603346-EPP-1-2018-1-LV-SPO-SCP), EAS contributed to raising awareness on the dual career of athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thus, a study aimed to investigate the student-athlete’s capability to face the academic, sport, and social challenges during the 2019 lockdown and to disclose novel aspects of dual careers has been published on the prestigious peer-review journal Frontiers in Psychology. Four hundred sixty-seven student-athletes from 11 countries completed an ad-hoc survey. The findings substantiate the relevant role of a dual career in coping with the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic through home training and e-learning valuable resources. The full text is available here.
REG. NUMBER: Voluntary Organisation registration VO/1270
PIC NUMBER: 913459865
Email: info@dualcareer.eu