Onwards and upwards: Bilbao, candidate city for European Capital of Sports Award!

After just missing out on becoming the World Design Capital, the irrepressible Bilbao will present today, , 27th October, its bid for the European Capital of Sports Award. This award focusses on the role of sport in the promotion of citizens’ wellbeing, aiming to “contribute to and complete the improvement of public health through a culture of physical exercise”. It also carries social implications; the winner of this prestigious title must promote through sport “a process of social integration among marginalized groups”.

A delegation from the Federation for the Associations of the European Capitals and Cities of Sport is currently visiting the city and its sporting facilities to evaluate its potential.

Bilbao is a candidate to watch: its football team is as rich in history as it is in talent; its popular bike hire service is beneficial both for the health of the city’s population and for the environment and the city’s river has always been linked with sport. What’s more, the bid team is going for 2015, the year in which the new San Mamés football stadium will open.

This bid is one more step in Bilbao’s worthy effort to make its mark on the global scene. The city already boasts increasing international importance, culturally and socially. It attracts more tourists every year, and has already become an important centre of architecture, gastronomy and urban regeneration.

All of us at the Instituto Hemingway are backing the bid, and congratulate our city on all that it has achieved to be recognized on the global scene.