European Athletics will organise its Health & Well-Being Conference in association with the French athletics federation (FFA) this weekend, 24-26 January, in Marseille, France.
More than 120 participants from 46 European Athletics Member Federations are expected to take part and discuss the role of athletics in the running and health markets.
The first of Friday evening's two keynote speakers will be Mrs Roselyne Bachelot, a former French Minister of Sports and Health, who during her mandate helped to establish national structures to promote sport as a healthy leisure activity for all ages.
'It is no coincidence that European Athletics has chosen Marseille to host the conference, as France is a leader promoting sport as a healthy leisure activity,' says Mr André Giraud, vice president of the FFA who is leading the local organisation efforts for the conference.
'We understood early on the interest of adapting our discipline to the greater public. The words running, jumping, throwing and walking, which are the fundamentals of athletics, are not only applicable to high-performance, we all can use them on a daily basis. This is a vision shared by European Athletics.”
The second keynote speaker will be Mr Jean Gracia, the Vice President of European Athletics responsible for development activities.
“In 2012 we found that most federation leaders were convinced of the need to add another dimension to the sport and expand their focus beyond high-performance to the running and health spheres,” says Mr Gracia.
'The next step is to demonstrate what has been undertaken by some of the biggest federations and try to get the rest to follow.”
Saturday's programme will include two working group discussions in which the participants reflect on developing safety and quality standards for mass participation road races across Europe in one and assisting federations to develop their strategies to promote fitness and healthy lifestyles in the other.
The safety and quality standards will be used to promote good relations between Athletics Federations and race organisers.
On Saturday afternoon the participants will also take part in healthy activities exhibition set up at Marseille's beautiful Vieux Port where they will be invited to observe Kids Athletics installations, Nordic Walking demonstrations and 'Forme-Plus' tests.