THE 2020 ISOLATION GAMES

Mr Liam du Feu, TSS Swimming

TSS Swimming designed a ‘COVID-19 competition’ that took place over seven weeks, from March to May. The idea was to create a way to keep the swimming community connected while also giving additional motivation for daily exercise. As we all know, exercise is a critical component for our mental health. The Games inspired friendly competition as well as an opportunity to see what other participants were doing, especially our international athletes who maintained their ‘normal’ weekly routines, albeit in a different environment.

Mr Chris Nesbit, our High Performance coach, worked tirelessly to keep our professional athletes on track, cycling from Burleigh to Main Beach every-day to touch base (at a distance) with the swimmers who completed their prescribed workouts in pairs all over the Coast. Through the Isolation Games, the rest of the community could see what the ‘stars’ were doing as well as their friends, this kept the team spirit alive and pumping!

Each day participants sent through their workouts along with videos and photos of their efforts. One hundred and eighteen people signed up to the Games. This included over 60 TSS students, family members and staff. We also had athletes take part from three different counties and eight different sports clubs! Exercise ranged from ocean swimming to roller-blading, skim boarding to hiking and even deep-sea diving! Additional challenges took place every week. Battles were a big hit - these involved athletes calling out other athletes, both then competing on an assigned day to see who could accumulate the most minutes/hours of exercise. Junior swimmers competed against Olympians and mothers competed against daughters.

TSS students Brayden Mercer, Kai Gilbert and Oscar Eddy all received Isolation Games certificates in the April awards. Brayden won the 15-19 overall age category with 5,300 minutes of exercise! Mr Nesbit completed the most minutes of exercise overall in April with 5,610 minutes.