Building a Culture of Prevention in Sport – The Example of the Healthy Active Project
March 24, 2026Sports injuries remain a major issue, both for athletes’ health and for performance, even though a large proportion of them can be prevented. While the effectiveness of evidence-based prevention programs is now well established, their day-to-day implementation remains limited, notably due to practical constraints and the priority given to performance. It is precisely within this context that the Healthy Active project was developed. Led by the Luxembourg Institute of Research in Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and Science (LIROMS), the project aims not only to promote prevention in sport but also to better understand how injury prevention is perceived and adopted.
An initial qualitative phase, conducted through semi-structured interviews with athletes, coaches, healthcare professionals, and institutional representatives, highlighted a central paradox: although prevention is widely recognized as important, it is often relegated to a secondary role, perceived as reactive rather than proactive, and subordinated to performance demands. The findings identified three key levers for effective implementation: clear and coordinated communication among all stakeholders in sport, early integration of prevention in youth sports, and structured support for coaches through targeted training programs.
A series of short, dynamic video capsules was therefore developed in collaboration with the Athletes’ Commission of the Luxembourg Olympic and Sporting Committee to raise awareness among the general public and field practitioners about key pillars of prevention, such as warm-up, recovery, training load management, nutrition, and mental health.
In parallel, the project plans to progressively develop evidence-based prevention resources and tools, tailored to different sports and levels of practice, and made freely accessible, in order to support consistent, structured, and sustainable prevention at the national level.