Events

Diversify sources of revenue to develop and grow the provision for gymnastics

During 2021 Covid-19 continued to affect the lives of many, with countries still in and out of lockdown or major restrictions. Except for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, major sporting events were either cancelled or postponed around the world and locally it was no different. Throughout this period, Singapore Gymnastics worked hard to adapt, adjust, and continue in a positive direction to offer gymnasts the opportunity to compete.

When Singapore in May and June 2021 underwent further stricter Safe Management Measures, training in Clubs came to a standstill, and even when restrictions started to lift training did not revert to normal. The 2021 Singapore Open and the 2021 Inaugural Summer Cup and Gymnastics Carnival were all unfortunately cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic restrictions that continued to oscillate during 2021. The scheduled times for these events made it a straightforward but unfortunate decision. It is always important that SG take into consideration gymnasts access’ to training facilities and quality training leading up to any scheduled events to ensure a safe competition environment.

Though during this time SG did hold for the first time three events for the higher competitive athletes: Summer Cup in September 2021, Classic Cup in December 2021, and Lunar Competition in February

Virtual Competition Virtual competitions were an initiative that started in December 2020, to reach out to our stakeholders after a period of no activity due to the pandemic. These virtual competitions continued during 2021 as we looked to provide more opportunities for gymnasts to engage and participate at National competitions and increase membership.

The 2021 Virtual Competition was from 4-12 December 2021 and included four disciplines: Men’s Artistic, Women’s Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline. The idea for the Singapore Gymnastics Virtual competition was born with the goal of providing gymnasts with the opportunity to compete during the pandemic, and as a platform to move forward and bring us all back together.

Participation numbers continued to increase healthily across all discipline compared to the first Virtual Competitions conducted in 2020 with a total of 466 athletes from 16 clubs, of whom 363 of these athletes are SG Athlete Member. The competition was held at the end of the year, categorised into SG and Non-SG members for the purpose of differing registration fees and to also enable a larger pool of gymnasts participation, thus giving 103 athletes who were not SG members from affiliated clubs an opportunity to compete.

Participants December 2020 December 2021 Artistic 75 131 Rhythmic 207 312 Trampoline 23

Singapore Gymnastics Classic 2021 The inaugural Singapore Gymnastics Classic was held at Bishan Sports Hall on 4-5 December 2021 and included three disciplines: Men’s Artistic, Women’s Artistic, and Rhythmic.

Singapore Gymnastics Classic was an SG's initiative to provide an opportunity for our higher performance athletes a chance to compete, and for our senior international athletes another chance to obtain a qualifying score for the upcoming 2022 Major Games. This event was heavily subsided by SportSG funding as it formed a key activity in preparing our high-performance athletes.

For local clubs and schools, registration fees were categorised into early bird and regular registration. All participants were required to have an active membership with SG: Athlete membership for athletes; and Technical Membership for coaches and judges.

The competition catered to junior and senior international athletes with 11 clubs participating with a total of 54 athletes. Men’s Artistic – 16 participants Women’s Artistic – 11 participants Rhythmic – 27 participants

This event will be included into the national competition calendar moving forward, allowing our athletes in the performance pathway additional competition experiences.

National Championships 2022 Singapore Gymnastics (SG) was responsible for the delivery of the 13th National Championships conducted from 11 - 20 March 2022 at Bishan Sports Hall. The 2022 Singapore Gymnastics National Championships was an opportunity for gymnasts to display their hard work. The Championships also saw Singapore’s elite gymnasts from Artistic and Rhythmic Gymnastics vying for selection into the National Squad.

Held over 9 days, involving 34 affiliated clubs we saw 1,204 athletes showcase their skills in the sports of Men’s Artistic, Women's Artistic, Rhythmic and Trampoline at the Bishan Sports Hall. There were 550 Artistic athletes, 599 Rhythmic and 55 Trampoline athletes. The participation level for National Championships increased 14% in 2022 vs 2021, with the new WAG National Programme released in 2019 and implemented for the second year having an impact in the increase of participants.

52 72 71

MAG

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

2019 2021 2022

203 372 479

WAG 519 545 599

RG 53 65 55

TRA 827 1054 1204

TOTAL PARTICPANTS

The event was conducted under strict Safe Management Measures that adhered to the existing SportSG and MOH guidelines. For the second year in a row no live spectators were permitted, but with the learnings from 2021, the Championships were made available to parents, family, and friends the through live streaming. A

total of 1,308 online live stream tickets were purchased during the Championships which was an 10% increase from 1,186 in 2021.

Registration fee and livestreaming were the main sources of income. With the assistance of SportSG’s funding support for venue hire and live streaming costs, the event produced a surplus. This is only possible with the large number of volunteers that assist in the delivery of the Championships. 164 event volunteers were recruited through TeamNila and the Gymnastics community predominately to perform hands-on roles in key operational areas. With the experience from 2021, a Volunteer Coordinator, Julia Chan was appointed in a volunteer capacity to assist the office with the volunteer management in the lead up and during the event. It is a role that will continue to be imbedded in our event structure, working towards being able to have it as a contracted position in years to come. With SG’s continued commitment to developing a safe sport environment, all volunteers signed a code of conduct plus a Child Protection Self Declaration and Agreement.

With borders opening, SG once again was able to bring in international neutral judges to bolster and work with our judging panels throughout the Championships. There is still a need to increase the number of local judges so all panel can be at full capacity and balanced, but having these judges attend National Championships for our FIG sessions assist with not only judges education and exposure but builds our relationship with the SouthEast Asian and Oceania Federations.

It is noteworthy that Singapore Gymnastics was one of the few National Sport Associations that were able to consecutively host its National Championships in 2021 and 2022 as the government restrictions continued to change over the past two years.

SG continued to use and explore the scoring programme ScoreExpress used in 2021. It is an intuitive scoring programme that provides live scoring and can be adjusted for our local needs. Like most software it does have issues and these need to be continually addressed but the programme can link with our HP athlete database and analyse judging scores, which are focus areas that that SG will look to do over the next few years.