The context and background of our project ‘Personality, Perseverance, Practice, Protection, Promotion: supporting our high level sports athletes to succeed in their dual careers’ was a very exciting project of great relevance because it provided us with a knowledge that strengthened our high level sports athletes in succeeding in academics, sports, socially and in life in general. This project provided different actors with a knowledge that helped them to develop a practice that is supportive of our high level sports athletes in general, for example in terms of building structures and interventions. It is a well-known issue that high level sports athletes find themselves in a dilemma feeling pressured to choose between sports and academics/education. This is a serious problem not only of relevance for the individual but of relevance for the wider community. The objectives of our project was to enable high level sports athletes to succeed academically, socially and in their specialist sport; to develop structures that allowed all stakeholders to successfully support these young people; to identify what the key characteristics of high level sports athletes were and to develop these characteristics to ensure success and personal fulfillment and furthermore to exploit the situation to encourage and develop greater involvement in sports activity for all. There were 6 partners within the project, including 3 schools, 1 public body and 2 sports clubs. Furthermore there was 1 associated partner: Team Danmark, an organization funded by the Danish government, with the purpose of supporting high level sports athletes. In this project there were a number of activities, including 1 teacher’s/staff's training, 2 pupils’ exchanges with participation from teachers/staff, 7 transnational meetings and 4 multiplier events. Beside this every partner in the project was working continuously and committed to fulfill the aims of the project directly and indirectly. The methodology was multifaceted. We used different approaches to reach the aims of the project, developing best practice including case studies, different kinds of research, qualitative and quantitative data, face to face meetings, training events and transnational meetings. The results and the impact on the partners within this project and other related actors including the wider community was envisaged to be direct and long-lasting including: Collaborative learning on a European level, building knowledge, encouragement and motivation, qualifications of development, developing and sharing best practice. Building international and professional networks among high level sports athletes, teachers, trainers, schools and other collaborative partners. Building bridges between different actors around the high level sports athlete, and building long lasting collaborative networks. Building structures and knowledge to support young athletes achieving at a higher level in sports as well as academically, and a focus on and awareness of developing and supporting dual careers. There was a great impact on the wider community, at a local, regional, national, European and international level in terms of: The community was strengthened by having schools that are supporting high level sports athletes in developing dual careers, and there was an economical gain, in supporting the development of dual careers in terms of making good prerequisites for high level sports athletes to success in further education and employment. It was of great relevance for the wider community that high level sports athletes were able to be positive role models, and thereby contribute to the further development and promoting of sports locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, and indirectly contributing to the health and well-being of the population. In this project we wanted to create a focus on a national, European and international level, to secure structural and economic support to high level sport athletes in developing dual careers. This project supported and developed European collaboration with an increased sense of initiative and entrepreneurship through the designed outputs; increased the competence in foreign languages and culture through teacher/staff and pupil exchange and school to school cooperation and sharing of resources; increased the levels of digital competence by the range of communication used within the management of the project, more positive attitudes towards the European project and the EU values through participation of at least 4 countries.
Through this project, our goal was to challenge our thinking and further develop our knowledge of how to better support our students in their dual careers. Through research and collaboration with our partner organizations, we were hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the topic, which in turn would provide us with the tools to achieve our goal. The objectives was to enable high level sports athletes to succeed academically, socially and in their specialist sport; to develop structures that allow all stakeholders to successfully support these young people; to identify what the key characteristics of high level sports athletes are and to develop these characteristics to ensure success and personal fulfillment and furthermore to exploit the situation to encourage and develop greater involvement in sports activity for all. It has been crucial for us to incorporate current and past high level sports athletes experiences with dual careers to capture which factors that are significant in explaining why girls have a greater tendency to stop doing high level sports than boys.
In all partner organizations, we found that there is a significant dropout rate among young athletes in general, but in particular among high level sports athletes. Research supports this and highlights in particular the problem among girls. It is a well-known issue that high level sports athletes find themselves in a dilemma feeling pressured to choose between sports and academics/education. This is a serious problem not only of relevance for the individual but of relevance for the wider community. We applied for this project because we want to be better to support our high level sports athletes to succeed in their dual careers. The aim of the project was to provide us with a knowledge that will strengthen our high level sports athletes in succeeding in academics, sports, socially and in life in general as well as providing all stakeholders (clubs, schools, trainers/staff/parents etc.) with a knowledge that will help them to develop a practice that is supportive for our high level sports athletes in general, for example in terms of building structures, interventions and good training environments.