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Sport & Health

from 2022 Annual Report by Student Guild

from 2022 Annual Report by Student Guild, page 30

Community & Culture

18,785+ Total student engagements

The Sport and Health portfolio provides students with sport, physical activity, and health education opportunities, with a focus on enjoyment, accessibility, and participation. It aims to break down barriers and promote the mindset of ‘anyone can improve on their physical health’ and ‘the best kind of physical activity is the one that you enjoy’.

Sport began with a difficult start to 2022 with COVID-19 lock downs, heavy rain and flooding all impacting the start for many clubs, events, and competitions. Despite this, when students were able to play, they came in droves to return to the arenas of their choice and were highly grateful to do so. Social Sport competition numbers recovered quickly to remain steady with 1,125 unique individuals competing for the year. With many playing multiple sports, seasons, and rounds this equated to 2,256 registrations and an impressive estimate of 15,792 times a player took to a court, field, or pool over the average 7 weeks of competitions. Come and Try events also grew after their inaugural year to grow attendance by 56%, which represented 390 students coming to try a new sport and meet new friends, as a pathway to gaining confidence to join a team for the full season.

One of the major highlights of the year in sport was the return to UniSport Nationals after the event had been cancelled due to COVID-19 the year prior. This was not without difficulty as the host venue had already been committed to being Perth, contributing to higher than usual costs and great uncertainty as Western Australia faced prolonged COVID-19 lock downs and restrictions. Despite this, the Student Guild coordinated 55 Griffith Gold Coast students who represented Griffith. Along with Unisport Nationals, Griffith Gold Coast Students also took part in five standalone Nationals events including athletics, Indigenous Nationals, League of Legends, surfing, and snow competitions. Across all events, Griffith students reached the podium 16 times including 4 gold medals which has provided great momentum set to continue into 2023.

Beyond sport, the portfolio continued to develop wider health and active lifestyle services and a highlight was building out nutritional services to distribute 1,551 healthy produce food packs. Online how to cook resources were also developed in partnership with Griffith nutrition students, to provide easy, cost effective, and healthy eating options. Further work was completed throughout the year to plan for broadening active lifestyle opportunities and launching a new volunteer program to encourage students to be more active at all levels.