COVID-19, A NEW FRONTIER: WHY EUROPE MUST LOOK WITHIN FOR A WAY FORWARD
As most of Europe clears a month of home confinement and quarantine, communities across the region are beginning to feel the ramifications that this ‘new normal’ inflicts on one’s physical and mental health. Sustained social distancing, teleworking and the onslaught of new professional and domestic challenges have brought with it a new normal of inactivity that has no clear end in sight. As the European Union mitigates the impact that home confinement will have on the health of citizens across the region, fast action will be required to produce impact across the region. Yet the European Union need not look outside of its borders for a range of creative and visionary solutions.
Slovak national Eva Gazova is one such visionary. When COVID-19 forced her home city of Bratislava, and the whole of the Republic of Slovakia to head home, Eva knew that she needed to act. As Chief Executive Officer of Special Olympics Slovakia, she had to execute an organizational pivot to ensure that some 4,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities across the country had the ability to stay fit, stay active, all while complying with the strict mobility regulations across the nation. Without question, this pandemic has the potential to have a disproportionate impact on populations in vulnerable situations. Gazova’s response was swift.
“Our practices and competitions are postponed. Sports clubs and facilities are closed. Many across the country may not believe it- but our athletes take their sports participation and dedication as seriously as any Olympic athlete,” said Gazova. . A former competitive swimmer herself, Eva knew that individuals with intellectual disabilities were at a heightened risk not only of contracting COVID-19, but of other risks as well: depression and increased social isolation. “For so many individuals with intellectual disabilities, sport is the adhesive to a life lived fully- friendships, physical activity, achieving goals, and having fun. Quarantine has made sport something that our athletes need to reinvent- and they are.”
Through support from Slovakia’s Ministry of Education, Research, Science and Sport and local sports company Demisport-Trnava, Special Olympics Slovakia has created the nationwide Make Your Fitness at Home campaign. Athletes with intellectual disabilities, together with their coaches and families, can go online and choose the sports equipment that they need to stay fit at home. The equipment and fitness supplies are delivered to the athletes’ doorstep. To date, over 1,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities have received high quality sports fitness equipment across Slovakia, making it one of the first national Special Olympics organizations in Europe to create such a national platform.
“Our athletes fight for acceptance every day of their lives,” continued Eva. “Part of that fight is showing their communities their talents, their drive to stay fit in the face of this paralysis.”
The Make Your Fitness at Home initiative also brings to life a key initiative and focus of the European Union- and one that has gained considerable attention over the past number of years: the annual European Week of Sport. “We in Slovakia have activated our network for the annual European Week of Sport and have seen higher and higher levels of participation with every passing year. The Make Your Fitness at Home campaign uses this same enthusiasm and takes it from the sports club to the living room,” Gazova says. “For a population that is often misunderstood, especially in times of crisis, the athletes of Special Olympics Slovakia are proving their strong ability to adapt every day to a very challenging environment.”
Gazova’s vision does not stop with at-home fitness. She also sees a unique opportunity to use COVID-19 to bring about a stronger, more inclusive Slovakia, and by natural extension European Union. With tens of thousands of family members, coaches, volunteers, supporters, and sponsors by her side, Gazova and the athletes of Special Olympics Slovakia are launching an Inclusion Declaration, both to highlight the urgency of inclusion at this time of crisis, but also to amplify the voice of those so often unheard. “This declaration is a statement from our athletes to the nation, and indeed to Europe. When we are able to return to the pitch, and to the sports club, will the doors be open to our athletes? If we take any lesson from COVID-19, it should be that health and fitness need to be accessible to all and that also means to individuals with intellectual disabilities.”
Special Olympics, which offers sport and competition opportunities to athletes with intellectual disabilities, mirrors the scope of the European Union with national programmes operating in all 27 member states. Many major Special Olympics events have benefited from EU funding including the Special Olympics European Games in Antwerp, Belgium in 2014 and the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria in 2017. As Europe looks to an unknown future, Gazova’s vision for perhaps the region’s most marginalized population offers a chance to recommit to a theme that has become more urgent now than ever: widening the circle to include everyone. Until then, her restlessness, and that of the athletes of Special Olympics, remains.
