The worlds of sports and school have always been close to one another; young people practice different sports at school and here most of them begin their agonistic activity. It is not a coincidence, then, that the FIS Nordic Ski WM of Val di Fiemme 2003 are an important event for the schools of the Trentino region and that they will be directly involved in the championships, thanks to a project put forward by the provincial chief of the school office Dott. Marcantoni. We met him to get some information about the project called "Study a country and win the world championships".

- The School Office of the Trentino region launched the idea of setting up collaboration links between the school and the world of sports. How is it going to develop?
"We think that this will be an important opportunity of involving the school in a sporting event that will be of paramount importance not only for the Val di Fiemme but also for the Trentino region as a whole. One of the objectives of the local school office and the local sports administration is that of involving the young in the world of sports".

- Does the project have a cultural aspect as well?
"Yes, we could not think of involving the students only from the sports point of view, because this would have led to the exclusion of many students. We therefore thought of an initiative concerning cultural aspects too, in order to favour the study of all the nations taking part to the championships. The idea is that every school "adopts" one nation and studies its geographical, historical, cultural and economic characteristics. This will improve the knowledge of countries and, in a way, favour the creation of the European union".

- Are links with foreign schools going to be set up?
"The main objective is that of creating links between local schools and foreign schools, so that there can be cultural exchanges and interactions between different countries".

- The project will end in 2003 with the participation of students to the championships.
"The project called "Study a nation and win the world championships" aims exactly at involving the schools in the world championships and students will have the opportunity of living this important experience".

- Students will have the chance of approaching an international environment and improving the knowledge of foreign languages.
"Foreign languages are of paramount importance for this project and are one of the main objectives of the school. The European Commission has urged all member states to include at least two foreign languages in the school curricula. We hope that the world championships will help student understand that languages are important and that they are a fundamental communication tool, in order to get closer to Europe and foster the links with other countries".

- Some students will have the opportunity of making a stage with the organising committee, thus entering the job market.
"These initiatives are already under way. The world championships are an important opportunity for the students, who will have the chance of learning how the organising committee of a great event works and taking the first steps into an international environment".

- In 2002 there will be an active part for the students, who will take part to several competitions in Val di Fiemme.
"As always in the past we will hold the Students' championships and Val di Fiemme will host the winter sports competitions. In this way we will create a link between the school tradition and the championships. The aim is that of involving as many students as possible in the sports activities. Our motto is "More sport for everyone".