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Laureus Switzerland brought skater legend Tony Hawk to Laax last November. From where?
We launched a new social skateboarding fitness program. Our team came up with the idea to ask Hawk, who is an international Laureus ambassador after all. He’s a “legend” in ice skating – and got the chance to train with the youth in Laax alongside today’s freestyle idol, Andri Ragettli. So we got in touch and Tony Hawk immediately said “I’m coming to Switzerland”.
What was he doing here?
We invited children and young people from the region to Laureus Freestyle Day. Hawk, Ragettli and Gian Simmen spent the whole day with the kids at this freestyle academy. The aim was to make young people love sports. At one point in that day, you were in Laax in a world of your own – a world of snow, skateboarding stars and these kids.
But why is a Tony Hawk involved? What is it for him?
Laureus ambassadors want to give something, whether in Switzerland or internationally. They are stars, but they were young themselves and adored legends. And: They do this for free because of their beliefs. So Tony Hawk flew from California to Switzerland to pass on part of his career to his children. One phone call was enough. This also goes for Gian Simmen or Andri Ragettli.
Tony Hawk is a Laureus Global Ambassador. For example, a Marco Odermatt in Switzerland belongs to these names. How do you get such signs?
Laureus is recognized from the World Sports Awards, renowned sports awards. Behind the awards are the foundations of eight national companies that support social sports programs, as we do in Switzerland. Alongside current athletes like Odermatt, Belinda Bencic, Simon Ehammer or Mujinga Kambundji are also stars today. They will eventually retire and become legends. Then they can give something to children who are not lucky enough to find the perfect conditions to become athletes themselves. Maybe kids who need to get excited about exercise and sports. Athletes are role models, they do it for free. This is driving. By the way, they often come to us of their own free will. This speaks for our good devotion.
Laureus supports social sports programs. Is this also about the top athletes of tomorrow?
Starting a career is not the goal. It’s not about performance, it’s about making sport accessible to everyone. An example: not all families in Switzerland can afford to have their children play in clubs or attend training sessions. In a country like ours, poverty should not be taken lightly. It is also about children who, for various reasons, are not integrated enough to enjoy sports. It can be for psychological, physical or social reasons. They also deserve access to sports. We’re talking about bottom-up equality here. Not at the top.
Of course there are many poor families in Switzerland as well. However, Laureus Global supports numerous international projects in countries where children are much worse off. So why not just help?
A Unicef study from 2021 showed that one-third of 14- to 19-year-olds in Switzerland say they have mental health problems. All is not well for us. Addictive behavior is a problem among teenagers, just like depression – both exacerbated by Corona. So one point for us is health promotion: It’s also about mental aspects. The numbers show that when it comes to addictive behavior, we’re clearly talking about society as a whole, not just poor families. Another factor is integration: How do we win over young people who don’t grow up here? How will we connect them with their Swiss peers? The third area of our Laureus movement in Switzerland is the promotion of girls. In sports like football there are either the best clubs for young women – and then we have competitive sports. If they don’t reach that level, eventually there will be no more offers for them. Against this background, we use money from our donors and the economy here, not abroad. This corresponds to our mission.
How does Laureus reach these young people?
We are a foundation and we choose the right social sports programs. We work closely with our program partners so that we reach exactly these children and young people through the welfare office, youth work or the Red Cross. Sometimes people just come up with good ideas: that’s how the “Champions” funding program came about. The initiators discovered that children and teenagers needed a room where they could first do their homework together and then exercise. Then we will be happy to support you not only with financing, but also with technical knowledge and links with social institutions. When you visit the program today, it’s heart-warming to see how the older kids accompany and coach the younger ones.
What does Laureus support for social sports programs?
For example, since this year we are introducing a new skating program, the trend sport is popular with young people, and the principle of “fall down and get up again” not only promotes health and exercise, but also strengthens personality. Skate parks are also popular meeting places for young people and therefore make a great basis for a project in close coordination with outdoor youth work. Again, with a new program, we want to bring refugee children and youth together with the Swiss through sports. Because we believe that origin, religion and language are not important in sports. We have a total of seven social sports programs and thus we transport more than 22,000 children and young people all over Switzerland every year.
Let’s look to the future: will Laureus make itself redundant in the coming years and decades with positively successful projects? Or, on the contrary, will it become more important?
I hope we can help more children and young people with exercise, health and therefore personality development. The task is important and should be extensible. Unfortunately, there will probably not be a situation where we are no longer needed. We may no longer be needed in individual programs and areas – then we’ll leave. And take a closer look at where we are needed.
Source : Blick
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
