Esbjerg Gymnasium will this academic year be the host school when the Euroschoolsport tournament takes place between April 23rd and April 29th 2023.

 

Euroschoolsport was founded by the European Union and was originally an annual sports event contested by one Further Education school from each of the twelve founding members of the European Union. The main aim was for the schools to compete with each other in a variety of sporting activities, but the participating schools were also expected to partake in a variety of social and cultural activities so that the students, teachers, schools and host cities gained a closer understanding of each other’s cultures.   

 

In the initial years the event was supported economically by the European Union, but after the funding by the European Union was withdrawn, a number of the participating schools grouped together and decided to continue with the initiative. Much of the original concept is still the same, the participating schools compete with a boy’s and girls’ team, each with eight athletes and a coach and/or teacher for each of the two teams. The teams compete in three different sports over the course of the week, this year the sports will be volleyball, ultimate and athletics. All the student competitors are provided with a host family by the host nation school, and the host families are then also invited to partake in a variety of social and cultural activities which aim to broaden the horizons of the participating students. Some of the activities are solely for the participating athletes, whereas others include all students from the host school and the host families.

 

The host school role is shared between participating schools on a rotational basis, and in 2023, after two years of being cancelled due to the Corona pandemic, it is once again Esbjerg Gymnasium’s honour to be the host school again, eleven years after they last hosted the tournament in 2012.