Tips for organising online sports events

Online lectures, online meetings, online coffee breaks, online birthdays... Everyone is fed up and frustrated with anything starting with the qualifier ‘online’. There is one exception: sports events. They are usually preceded by the word “cancelled”.

Thankfully, there have been exceptions. We collected useful stories and ideas for organising online sports events.

1. The most typical online sport events have been group fitness classes organised by sports services. The classes have been held both live and as recordings. During live classes, both the instructor and the participants have their cameras on, allowing the instructor to give feedback. It is extremely useful to have the instructor give feedback during yoga, for instance. Encouragement during heavy exercise classes can give energy.

2. Challenges are always a nice way to get many people to compete. The traditional way of filming oneself in the middle of the performance and sharing it on social media is a better fit for a campaign, but a small tweak can turn it into a control point event, where performances must be filmed in certain locations.

3. Events are easy to organise by utilising distance measuring apps. During the Wellbeing week of the Student Union of Lappeenranta University of Technology (LTKY), one event involved teams made up of the subject associations skiing as many kilometres per week as possible. We collected the results into Excel files using distance measuring applications (such as Sports Tracker). We got a lot of kilometres! The same principle can be applied to several forms of physical exercise: it is easy to collect steps and kilometres from running, rowing machine use and cycling.

4. A somewhat more advanced app was used in a worldwide race for charity, where runners took off at the same time, and after ten minutes, an imaginary car started chasing after them. The car accelerated at regular intervals, and the competitor’s performance was over once the car finally reached them. The app spurred the runner on and announced how far away the car was at any time. Look into the event here.

5. Sports competitions rely heavily on success, and as such, they need competitors to have a level playing field. For instance, The Finnish Figure Skating Association has held Finnish Senior Championships as virtual competitions. The participants and organisers agree on when and how the performance will be filmed. The videos are sent to the organisers, who draw the order in which they judge the performances. Here is a link to the event. When it comes to virtual competitions, it is important to verify that the performances are unedited or live.

6. In less serious virtual competitions, circumstances can be more uneven when needed. For instance, the Finnish Ski Association’s ski jumping contest in March allowed performers to use ramps of various size and video record them as many times as they wanted. The overall performance, including body position and landing, was judged by well-known TV athletes.

7. Combat sports and ball games can be performed in trick form: for instance, how many three point shots a basketball team can make within a certain time frame.

8. You do not have to come up with everything yourself. For example, we have seen many different models of recreational orienteering events during the corona year. In the most common versions, the map is downloaded or bought from the organiser. The control points remain where they are for a certain time, during which participants can go orienteering at any time. You can also use the municipality’s fixed control points. If the event is going to have a high number of participants, please discuss it with those who set up the control points, or there might not be enough maps for everyone. It is also polite to ask for permission when you make use of other people’s work.

Send us your tips, we will share them! The sky is the limit when it comes to online sports events, and you get by with cooperation and by keeping an open mind.