A center of excellence dedicated to health sports and competitive sports. A research and development laboratory, the first of its kind, focused on health sports. A tremendous platform to demonstrate to the largest audience the effectiveness of sports as a health tool and to study the conditions of its integration into healthcare.
The Diagana Sports Health Campus, presented to the press today, will be all of this. The result of over three years of work and reflection by Odile and Stéphane Diagana, supported by a steering and scientific committee, it has this ambition. And it should soon have the means to achieve it.
This vast project, still unprecedented in Europe, started from several observations. The most striking is encapsulated in one figure: the average daily physical activity of the French has decreased, in 200 years, from 8 hours to 60 minutes. Sedentary lifestyle has become the leading cause of mortality worldwide among non-communicable diseases. According to the WHO, regular sports practice would halve the risks of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity.
In light of this, Odile and Stéphane Diagana, both former high-level athletes trained by their studies and professional experiences in marketing and business creation, came up with the idea of a Campus where the general public, people with chronic diseases, amateur athletes, and high-level athletes would intersect.
They found a location for it at Vallauris Golfe-Juan, in the heart of Sophia Antipolis, in the Alpes Maritimes, where this vast 4-hectare complex will be built, about fifteen minutes from Nice airport. They have outlined its features: an athletics stadium, a swimming pool, a cycling track, a multi-sport gymnasium, fitness rooms, a technical evaluation area, and a hotel residence.
Unique in its concept, the Diagana Sports Health Campus will also be unique in its daily attendance. Of the approximately 10,000 visitors expected to enter its doors each year for courses, seminars, or training sessions, one out of two will simply aim to improve their fitness and health by engaging in activities like Nordic walking, running, swimming, cycling, or fitness, under the guidance of sports and health professionals. Three out of ten will be patients, to whom the Campus staff will offer prevention programs. The remainder, about 20%, will be competitors, half of whom will be listed at the high level. An agreement has already been made with the French Athletics Federation to host about twenty sprint and jump hopefuls each year.
For more information: [https://www.campussportsante.com](https://www.campussportsante.com)
Photo credit: Jacques Laurence
