PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Obesity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1636728
This article is part of the Research TopicEarly Prevention of Childhood Obesity: Identifying Risks and Implementing Effective InterventionsView all articles
Beyond sport to combat childhood obesity: educating, engaging, and preventing through an integrated school-based campaign grounded in the values of Olympism
Provisionally accepted
Gianvincenzo Zuccotti1,2
Franco B Ascani3Assunta Ferdinanda Romeo3
Valeria Calcaterra2,4*Podiacar Team2- 1Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
- 2Ospedale dei Bambini Vittore Buzzi, Milan, Italy
- 3International Federation of Sport Cinema and Television, Milano, Italy
- 4University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
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Introduction Promoting sports in schools is a key strategy to address childhood obesity and raise awareness of the benefits of physical activity. The "Trofei di Milano Cortina 2026" initiative, in collaboration with Buzzi Children's Hospital in Milan, launched a comprehensive school-based campaign to promote Olympism and healthy lifestyles.The initiative involved 350 schools across primary and lower secondary levels, offering free educational and sports activities in two phases: a year-long educational component followed by a final sports event. Educational materials, including an animated cartoon "Grandma Wilma's Tales," supported the EUbacked project on combating pediatric obesity and educating children on diabetes and cardiovascular risk.Out of the targeted schools, 95 (27.1%) formally joined, involving 2.100 classes and 51.066 students aged 6 to 13. Participation in educational activities was substantial, with thousands of modules completed across five thematic areas, such as "Sport in a Video," "Sustainability Champion," and "Education 4.0." The initiative engaged 312 teachers and included hospital school participation. The sporting phase registered 8,658 participants, nearly evenly split by gender. A network of 10 public and sports institutions, along with two sponsors, supported the program, highlighting the initiative's wide-reaching impact and collaborative strength in fostering youth health and well-being.The data confirm the initiative's success, highlighting strong community engagement and broad acceptance of the educational model. Integrating sport, values, and education proves to be an effective, scalable strategy for positively and collectively preventing childhood obesity.
Keywords: Childhood Obesity, Children, PODiaCar, Trofei di Milano Cortina, Olympism, Sport
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 17 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zuccotti, Ascani, Romeo, Calcaterra and Team. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Valeria Calcaterra, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
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