Historic victory for Ea7 Emporio Olimpia Milano and the Laureus Sport for Good Italia Foundation: the shared social responsibility project promoted by Euroleague Basketball was awarded the gold medal in the seventh edition of the “One Team Awards”. The awards ceremony took place in Barcelona last Friday. For the first time, in fact, it was the Italian project that climbed onto the first step of the podium, defeating the competition of all the One Team programs created during the 2022/23 season by the 38 Euroleague and Eurocup clubs – the two most popular basketball competitions. prestigious in Europe – who have used sport as a useful tool to have an impact on their respective communities. In second and third place were the projects supported by Olympiacos and Barcelona respectively.
After 5 years of fruitful collaboration, embellished with 3 podiums and the Special Community Development Award for work in the area, won last year, the synergy between EA7 Emporio Olimpia Milano and the Laureus Sport for Good Italia Foundation has proven successful in supporting children who suffer from social, cultural and economic hardship. It is no coincidence that the awareness sessions and events such as the “One Team Day” involved more than 100 students from the Arcadia Comprehensive Institute of Gratosoglio, a southern suburb of Milan; Kyle Hines and Gigi Datome – ambassadors of the project and Olimpia Milano players in the 2022/23 season – were a regular presence at the initiatives; the auctions and parallel activities were very successful.
But it was the novelty of the creation of the Gruppo Squadra One Team that made the difference. In fact, around 25 students enjoyed a free sporting experience of great educational value, training outside of school hours to delve deeper into educational issues through an inclusive basketball proposal. There was no shortage of training sessions led by the coaches of Olimpia Milano, workshops for the in-depth analysis of the contents that emerged with Alessandra Stella, the sports psychologist of Laureus Italia, meetings with the champions of Olimpia Milano and the possibility of attending a Euroleague match at the Mediolanum Forum in Assago, the home of Olimpia.
“We finally got the One Team Gold Award after a five-year wait,” says Michele Samaden, Olimpia’s One Team manager. “We are very proud of this recognition and want to thank our community partner, Laureus, and our commercial partner, Scalo Milano, for supporting us throughout the season. I also want to thank the wonderful One Team organization who help us every time assistance is needed.”
The satisfaction with the goal achieved is also evident in the words of Lara Tagliabue, Project Manager of the Laureus Foundation: “Basketball has been my whole life and when I stopped 7 years ago, I never expected to find myself here today. “Children in poor areas on the outskirts of many cities do not have access to and lack the knowledge needed to access activities, culture and sport. Our program wants to use basketball to empower these kids’ lives.”
Olimpia Milano’s One Team project, supported by the Laureus Foundation and fresh from Golden Awards, affected the emotional, psychological and physical sphere of the participants, helping them to develop the life skills necessary to deal with different everyday situations and the skills from a from an emotional, psychological and motor point of view.
Source-www.adnkronos.com