Zagreb, 14 October 2025 – The Croatian Olympic Committee (HOO) successfully hosted the second Educational Module of the Erasmus+ project “GUARD – Safeguarding Children in Sport”, gathering more than 170 participants — child safeguarding officers, experts, and representatives of seven National Olympic Committees, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport of Republic of Croatia, and the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children of Republic of Croatia.
Opening addresses were delivered by Zlatko Mateša, President of the Croatian Olympic Committee, Helenca Pirnat Dragičević, Ombudsperson for Children, and a Roberta Karadža from the Ministry of Tourism and Sport of Republic of Croatia. They underlined the importance of joint institutional action and the shared responsibility to protect children and young athletes in all sporting environments.
Project Manager Maja Poljak welcomed participants from across Europe and reflected on the project’s progress, noting that GUARD was built on the belief that every child deserves to feel safe in sport, and that the second module marks the transition from awareness to concrete action, ensuring international exchange of knowledge.
Throughout the day, participants explored frameworks for child safeguarding in sport, featuring contributions from Roberta Karadža from the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, Zrinka Greblo Jurakić and Ana Žnidarec Čučković as safeguarding experts supporting the project, and Alina Gherghisan and Matea Horvat as representatives of the NOC Romania and NOC Croatia, in the role of welfare and safeguarding officers respectively.
A particularly reflective moment came from Emma Thomas, former athlete, sport ethicist and founder of Under the Ropes (UK), who shared her personal survivor story — reminding everyone that safeguarding is a shared duty to prevent such experience in the future and emphasizing the relevance of adopting a trauma informed and athlete centered approach.
The afternoon programme featured valuable international insights, including presentations from NOC Poland, NOC Slovenia, and the EOC EU Office. Representing NOC Slovenia, Maja Smrdu, also member of the EOC Ethics Commission, and Peter Dokl, OLY, Head of the Olympic Values Department, highlighted the athlete-centred approach to safeguarding and the importance of mental health and ethical leadership in sport.
Carlotta Giussani, Head of Funding at the EOC EU Office and Project Manager of the SAFE HARBOUR initiative, presented the project’s outcomes and its complementarity with GUARD, showing how joint European efforts are shaping a coherent safeguarding framework across the Olympic movement.
Participants also completed an evaluation survey designed to support both project reporting and the creation of a European network of Child Safeguarding Officers, an online platform that will enable collaboration and knowledge exchange among participants.
Following Zagreb, the same Educational Module 2 will be replicated in Lithuania in November for their representatives, ensuring that the project’s training and safeguarding standards continue to expand across Europe.
The last and final educational module 3 is due to take place again in the national context in February 2026.
