Press Release
Brussels, 18 November 2010

EHFA awarded EU funding for “Fitness Against Doping” project

EHFA – European Health and Fitness Association (the representative body of the health & fitness sector, based in Brussels, Belgium) has been awarded a grant by the European Commission to lead a project to research and develop preventative strategies to counter doping practices in fitness facilities. EHFA was chosen as 1 of only 3 successful applicants from 146 submissions to the funding stream under the European Commission’s Preparatory Action in the Field of Sport. The EU allocates funding, such as this, to assist worthy, important and necessary projects which could not be carried out without the financial support of the Commission.

The Commission was impressed with EHFA’s proposed project entitled Fitness Against Doping (FAD) and will support the project from start to finish. The project takes a “transnational approach” to the fight against doping and, for that reason, EHFA have established a network of experienced partners from across Europe and beyond.

EHFA President, Harm Tegelaars, said “We are honored to work with the European Commission and our strategically picked partners, who for the first time will review whether there is any basis to assumptions made of doping practices in the fitness industry. With the support of its partners, EHFA will provide evidence-based information on the extent of doping in fitness and will critically assess the success of current anti-doping policies and will develop new intervention strategies. We are an important industry for the health of European citizens. As such, we need to act responsibly and recognise where we need to address potentially negative associations to our sector and tackle them in an evidenced based way.”

The European Commission’s White Paper on Sport recognises that doping poses a threat to sport and citizens alike and calls on organisations to develop rules of good practice to ensure that young sportsmen and sportswomen are better informed and educated in the issues of doping.

EHFA’s project was deemed significant because previous research on doping has focused almost completely on elite professional sport. Despite this, at the EU Anti-Doping Conference 2009, it was noted that there may be a problem in amateur sport, implicating the fitness sector, but doing so without detailed evidence.

The project will use primary data, collected throughout Europe, from the fitness industry to assess the level of doping at fitness facilities. Another essential element of the project will focus on what policies are currently working and effective in the related area of professional sport.

When the results of the research are collected, it will be possible to accurately see the extent of the existence of doping in fitness. The project will then combine the examples of effective anti-doping practices and policies from professional sport with expert knowledge specific to the fitness sector to develop a preventative approach to doping.

Finally, the project will then disseminate this policy and best practice to help educate and inform fitness operators, club owners, national associations and practicing exercise professionals with the aim of reducing the health risks of doping by eliminating it from the fitness sector as far as possible.

The project will start in January 2011 and is due for completion in March 2012.

List of Partners:

AGAP - Portugal  (Portuguese Fitness Association)  - www.agap.pt
BAHF - Bulgaria (Bulgarian Association of Health and Fitness ) - www.bahf.bg
DFHO - Denmark (Danish Fitness and Health Organisation ) - www.dfho.dk
DSSV - Germany (German Fitness Association)  - www.dssv.de
DADR - Poland (Anti-Doping Research Centre )  - www.insp.waw.pl
FIA - UK ( Fitness Industry Association ) - www.fia.org.uk
Fit!vak - Netherlands ( Dutch Fitness Association)  - www.fitvak.com
HCA & ICCE - Hungary (Hungarian Coaching Association and International Coaching Council on Education)  -  www.magyaredzo.hu and http://www.icce.ws/
ISCA - Denmark (International Sport and Culture Association) - www.isca-web.org
SFGV - Switzerland  (Swiss Fitness Association)  - www.sfgv.ch

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Note to editors:

Based in Brussels, EHFA, a not-for-profit organisation, represents the interests of the European health & fitness sector at the EU level. Its objective is “More People, More Active, More Often”. EHFA is also a standards setting body and promotes best practices in instruction and training to help combat the inactivity and obesity challenges spreading across Europe. EHFA represents more than 9,000 facilities, 390 000 exercise professionals across Europe, as well as national associations, operators, suppliers, training providers and other stakeholders. EHFA also operates the European Register for Exercise Professionals, EREPS.
For more: www.ehfa.eu & www.ereps.eu