About

“notHing lEss thAn an athLete” (HEAL) is a Small Collaborative Partnership in the field of Sport aiming at empowering women exploiting the potential of sports practice as an avenue for dispelling stereotypes and determining more favourable attitudes and capacities of female integration in sports and through sport.

In Europe, in general, women practise sport less than men, but there are exceptions.The White Paper on Sport and the recognition of sport in the Lisbon Treaty bring new life to it: “Sport is one of the areas of human activity that most concern sand brings together citizens of the European Union. Due to its capacity to reach out to everyone, regardless of age or social origin, sport can play various roles in European society” (White Paper on Sport, 2007).

The “Charter of Women’s Rights in Sports” of 1985, proposed by UISP and adopted by the European Parliament in 1987 as the Resolution on Women in Sport was an important step to acknowledge the disparity of the condition for women and men in sports. The Charter highlighted the very high inequality between women and men in the field of sport and stressed the importance of overcoming the numerous cultural barriers that prevent women’s involvement.

In spite of some progress and the increase in the number of women practising sport, discrepancies still exist in terms of equal opportunities in some areas of sport.