The project “Erasmus & Sport” was launched in 2013.

This unprecedented initiative was born due to the lack of a national sport plan characterised by a certain level of development and able to involve and connect all the single local realities of ESN Italy’s network.

In its first version, such a project included another initial exploratory phase apart from the typical ones (at a local and national level):

  • Phase 1: ESN ITALIA SPORT MEETING
  • Phase 2: ESN LOCAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
  • Phase 3: ESN ONE - National Erasmus Olympic Games

During the third phase, a fourth member (Giuseppe Misdea) joins the initial Board Supporters team, known as the “Sport Trio” (Marco Barbuscio, Alessandro Bruschi e Luca Tomasicchio). This is how the famous “ESN Italy’s Sport Poker” is born.

PHASE 1: ESN ITALY SPORT MEETING (21/22/23 June, 2013, Rome)

“ESN ITALY SPORT MEETING“ saw, in June 2013, in the city of Rome, three days of sport, focused on both football and volleyball. 16 of the 50 Italian sections took part to this event, for a total amount of about 100 participants, coming from the Italian cities of L’Aquila, Bergamo, Brescia, Catanzaro, Chieti Pescara, Foggia, Lecce, Milano Politecnico, Milano Statale, Modena, Parma, Roma 3, Salerno, Trento, Venezia, Verona.

The event received many positive feedback from all the sections involved, who had the chance to share – inside and outside the sport facilities – many gathering and socializing moments, definitely an extra to the achievement of our association’s purposes.

The importance of what has been developed, goes far beyond what is just a sport competition like many others. Apart from the national in scope, for ESN Italy this has been a real exploratory event, that allowed to trace the basis for a wider and more ambitious project:”Erasmus & Sport“.

PHASE 2: "ESN LOCAL CHAMPIONSHIPS" (Autumn 2013 - Spring 2014)

The second phase involved directly all the 50 sections belonging to the ESN Italia network, active in as many universities throughout Italy, inviting to locally develop sport activities during the period of time that goes from autumn 2013 to spring 2014.

For the success of the second phase of "Erasmus & Sport", each section was asked to nominate a referent - called "Section Sportsman" - who interfaced directly and represented their own section with the Organizing Committee (hereinafter referred to as OC) of the national sporting project. The fifty "Section Sportsmen" have the fundamental task of implementing the project at the local level, promoting sporting activity and social cohesion between local students and Erasmus students participating in the project.

From Lecce to Milan, from Trento to Catania, from Cagliari to Rome, the individual local sections organized tournaments that saw the participation of foreign students in international mobility and Italian students. All the main Italian university poles are connected to a local section of ESN Italia (currently 50), for a potential catchment area of more than one million students.

Each of these cities, for each specific sport activity proposed, had a winning team then called to represent their local section in the third and final phase, as well as the most ambitious phase, of "Erasmus & Sport".

Also in this phase, the ESN sections present on the Italian territory have been invited to collaborate for the development of sports projects that involve several neighboring sections. With a view to favoring and boosting this phase, ESN Italia has decided to grant a small fund to be divided among the projects deemed most deserving.

PHASE 3: “ESN ITALY ONE” (11-13 April 2014, Ascoli Piceno)

During this phase, the best local teams and athletes (in different sport disciplines) took part in real “Erasmus Olympic Games” (ONE is the italian acronym for “National Erasmus Olympic Games”), which were performed from the 11th to the 13th of April.

They were carried out in Ascoli Piceno, which was awarded the European City of Sport of 2014 by the Association of European Capitals of Sport (ACES). Moreover, San Benedetto del Tronto hosted some outstanding moments of the event, including all the finals of the basket tournament.

ESN Italy’s National Board and the O.C. “Erasmus & Sport” collaborated with ESN ESAN Ancona, ESN Macerata and ESN AURE Camerino, which had been supported and sponsored by their respective Universities: Università Politecnica delle Marche, Università degli studi di Macerata and Università degli studi di Camerino.
Furthermore, the event was organized in collaboration with the Municipality of Ascoli piceno and with the official patronage of the same Province. The concession of patronage of the Marche Region highlighted the importance of this event.

On Friday the 11th of April, the open Ceremony officially kicked off the event, to which attended both the patronage institutions and a representation of ESN Italy’s Board. The framework was completed by a parade of all the athletes (more than 500 from all around the world) into the streets of the city centre and an exhibition of twirlers from many Italian regions.

One of the most important initiatives of ESN International, Exchange Ability, was integrated in the event, in order to get the message of “ESN Italy ONE” stronger. Such  project has two aims: increasing the number of disabled exchange students and involve them in all the activities that ESN promotes. For this reason, on Thursday the 10th of April took place “the event in the event”: the participants could try different sport disciplines, such as basket in wheelchair and five-a-side-football for visually-impaired people. The beautiful Municipality of Camerino hosted this unique initiative.

The participation of some important guests was just the cherry on top. Among them there were a representation of ESN Poland, involved with ESN Italy in the development of a significant national sport project; a delegation of the Youth National Forum (FNG), the only youth organizations national platform, with more than 75 organizations (among which there is ESN Italy), which means a representation of around 4 million young people.