Raquel Gonzalez, an FC Barcelona international athlete, and Julieta Franco, a professional hockey player, both students of the Master in Sports Management at the Johan Cruyff Institute, left their classroom for a day to give a talk together with Mariona Violán, a sports physician, at a secondary school in Tiana (Barcelona). The aim of talk, for teenagers in the first and second years of secondary school, was to “explain our sporting and personal experience with a view to promoting sport in this age group, and particularly for girls, as there is a study indicating a sharp decline in the practice of sport during puberty”, explains Raquel.
The Barça athlete says “our professional career served as an example to talk about the physical and emotional benefits that sport brings. And to get across to them the idea that biological factors, and specifically the onset of menstruation, do not represent any problem. I hope our words in this class will help us see many girls out of inactivity and full of sporting vitality”.
Julieta Franco says that “to be able to convey the vast amount of benefits of physical activity and sport is another reason why it is worthwhile doing sport. However little this work achieves, it adds to the many other positive moments that I’ve been a part of in this environment: from health, personal development, social development, good living habits in general. It is very important to have a reference at this age, and in this sense, to feel a bit like that, it’s very rewarding”.
