Iron Sparks receives award for barrier-free fitness concept

In September, we met Sybille Blitgen and her athletes at a functional fitness training session at the Lycée Bel-Val. From people with prosthetic legs to sports enthusiasts on the autism spectrum and neurotypical young people, everyone was here for the same reason: to do sport, in a group, but above all without judgement or barriers. At Iron Sparks, inclusion has been practised in its best form since 2021, because the fitness exercises are not specifically aimed at people with a disability, but simply at everyone – regardless of age, physical or mental condition, gender or nationality.

The two founders Sybille Blitgen and Mandy Loes, who are behind the organisation, lead the training together with numerous volunteers, as Iron Sparks is a regular sports club that relies on the help of private individuals and donations. The club leaders are therefore all the more delighted to have won the Zefi Prize. "We hope that the award will encourage even more people to contact us and open doors for people with disabilities, so that the whole thing becomes national and inclusion doesn't just happen here, " says Blitgen. Visibility is the be-all and end-all when it comes to inclusion: firstly, to show that people with a disability want to keep fit, and secondly, to prove that they can do this just as well as neurotypicals and the able-bodied.

Blitgen and Loes therefore want to invest the prize money from Zefi primarily in the in-house competition The Iron Showdown, which will be organised by the club for the second time in July 2025: "For us, the prize means that we can continue to advance both our activities as a sports club and the competition, and that's super important." Important not only for Iron Sparks, but above all for the message behind it: that everyone can find their place in Luxembourg if everyone is willing to organise activities in such a way that everyone can participate according to their abilities.