by GeQvP5TJlM | Jan 13, 2021 | News
Mediacorp and beIN SPORTS on Thursday (Aug 8) announced a partnership to bring sports programmes to the digital video platform. AdvertisementAdvertisement
Subscribers will be able to enjoy two packages – the beIN SPORTS Pass and the Rugby World Cup Pass – on any of their devices upon activation.
The beIN SPORTS Pass offers football lovers unlimited access to live and on-demand matches from the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, La Liga, Ligue 1, MLS, and more. Subscribers can choose from different tenured plans, priced at S$9.98 per month or S$68.98 for an entire season.
Rugby fans, on the other hand, can opt for the Rugby World Cup Pass, which will screen all matches of the Rugby World Cup 2019, to be held in Japan from Sep 20 to Nov 2.
Customers who sign up from now until Aug 31 stand to enjoy an early bird price of S$68.98 (regular price S$78.98). As an added bonus, all subscribers of the Rugby World Cup Pass will receive a complimentary beIN SPORTS Pass, valid until Nov 30.
Mr Anil Nihalani, Mediacorp’s head of Digital Products and Technology, said: “We are pleased to partner with beIN SPORTS, one of the world’s leading sports networks, to bring our customers an exciting selection of premium sports content.
“In addition, Toggle users enjoy the unrivalled convenience of instant activation and access to content on the widest range of devices, all without the hassle of set-top box installation.”
Mr Mike Kerr, beIN Asia Pacific’s managing director, said: “I have had a great experience as a Toggle user, so I am naturally excited over our collaboration with Mediacorp to expand its sports offering.
“Toggle is one of the most popular apps in Singapore, and through our partnership, local fans now have even more choices to fuel their appetite for live football content on beIN SPORTS.
“As Toggle continues to widen its engagement and grow its user base, we are committed to delivering high-quality coverage and enhancing fans’ experience starting with the upcoming football season and Rugby World Cup 2019.”
Subscribers to the beIN SPORTS Pass and Rugby World Cup Pass who refer their friends to sign up stand a chance to win all-expenses paid trips to watch a La Liga match in Spain and the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup in Japan, respectively.
More information on the referral contests and price plans is available at toggle.sg/priceplan.
by GeQvP5TJlM | Jan 13, 2021 | News
Before Joseph Schooling touched the wall of the Olympic pool in Rio de Janeiro in the finals of the 100m butterfly at last year’s Summer Games for a time of 50.39 seconds, his native Singapore had never claimed an Olympic gold medal.
By beating Michael Phelps and Chad le Clos, Schooling changed the sporting identity of the small city-state.
That is the opinion of Toh Boon Yi, Chief of the Singapore Sports Institute (SSI), the man largely responsible for driving the country’s national sports associations, youth high performance centres, government agencies, schools, coaches and athletes towards a single mission to transform Singapore into a sporting force on the world’s stage.
“Joseph’s medal showed our five and a half million citizens that we are capable of athletic greatness,” Toh says from his headquarters in Singapore. “It’s not just the sport of swimming that has been galvanised by his success. The theory is, “If a local boy can do it, there is no reason that we can’t also do it.” It’s a very exciting time.”
Schoolings medal will be remembered fondly in isolation as a historic first gold for Singapore but also as part of a collection of strategies and programme implementations known as “Vision 2030” with the tagline “Living better through sport”.
“That is not for sport, but through sport,” Toh says. “The objective is to live better and that means different things for different people. We want more medals and more Joseph Schoolings but not just medals for medals’ sake. Accolades need to inspire people to live a better life, to be healthier, to bring communities together and to break down social boundaries. We largely judge our success as an organisation by how many young people are inspired to take up sport for the first time.”
With such a small population, the SSI can’t afford to lose any athlete that enters the talent pipeline. Of course leaks occur as young people lose interest along the way or incur injuries that permanently put them out of action, but unlike larger countries, every loss is keenly felt. That is why the SSI places great emphasis on retaining every athlete in the system as they advance up the pyramid.
“We can’t rely on mere numbers,” Toh admits. “We have to work doubly hard in both talent identification as well as talent retention. That is why in 2016 we established a national youth sports institute to ensure each promising young athlete has the necessary support in terms of access to the latest sports science and medicine as well as management and psychological needs. No stone can be left unturned because if we suffer leakage, we are in trouble down the line.”
A key strategy in swelling the base of the pyramid lies in the creation, and the subsequent championing, of sporting heroes that young people can look to and wish to emulate. The SSI worked closely with Schooling and his family in the aftermath of his historic gold and the sport of swimming has seen a dramatic increase in participation.
“With a European sounding name and an ancestry that is Caucasian, many Singaporeans were unsure whether or not Joseph was a true blue national,” Toh says. “He is third generation and when he or his wonderful family walk the streets of Singapore he is a symbol for us all.
“The creation of heroes depends on more than just success. It depends on the individual, on the sport and on how much the nation connects with the athlete’s story. We push our athletes to be conscious that they are competing for more than personal glory. Joseph has bought into this message from the first day he represented our nation in the pool.”
This cohesive sporting identity ties in with the advantages that being a small nation provides. Toh takes inspiration from Iceland’s remarkable run at last year’s European Championships that saw the tiny Arctic island knock out England in the round of 16.
“We have not been in touch with Iceland’s football association but we certainly cheered them on!” Toh beams, hinting at a kindred spirit shared with the diminutive European island nation. “Here in Singapore, we’re not just small in terms of population but also in terms of land mass. That means that we can coordinate all our efforts in our national stadium and that no one is ever more than half an hour away from assistance or evaluation and most importantly of all, we can concentrate our resources on a select number of athletes and they can fully buy in to our mission and our vision.”
The SSI works closely with the Department of Education and conducts talent identification tests on 10% of the cohort they are interested in over two weekends in a central talent hub. With all the nation’s top youth athletes assembled so closely together, different sports associations communicate with each other and facilitate a fluid ethos that might see a young athlete move between codes. This way, athletic potential merely shifts from one code to another rather than dissipate entirely.
“We can’t be too picky which sports our young people choose to pursue and we have to be vigilant of the changing landscape,” Toh says, pointing out that one of the fastest growing sports on the island is ultimate Frisbee. “The Olympic movement has shown itself to be open to new sports and you just never know what the next big event is going to be. We’re guided by our youth, not the other way around.”
Having said that, Toh admits that, like any nation, Singapore places a higher value on particular sports. Events that are included in the South East Asian Games and the Summer Olympics receive the majority of financial and operational support.
Resources are finite and space is a premium on the congested island. As Toh says, “Sometimes we have to make a call and one of the 40 to 60 associations that we support is left unhappy. That is the nature of any managerial job.”
All of these variables have to be navigated alongside a vital pillar of Vision 2030 and that is the continuation of Singapore being seen as a truly great sporting destination. Formula 1, the World Rugby Sevens, the BNP Paribus Women’s Tennis Association Finals all call Singapore home and, according to Toh, have all enhanced the nation’s reputation as well as enthusiasm from the masses.
“We’re punching above our weight in terms of hosting events that are of interest around the world but it is simply one piece of the puzzle,” Toh explains. “As I said, our vision is to live better through sport. For some people that might be watching the best tennis players, for some it might be being inspired to pick up an oval ball after watching the rugby sevens and for others it might be pursuing gold after watching Joseph. Either way, we’re living better through sport.”
Toh’s dream of seeing Singapore mix it with the giants of world sport by 2030 may be an optimistic one, but his organisation is certainly making all the right waves. If everything clicks into place, and the tiny island nation can create a culture where young athletes not only play host to the world but also cross oceans to conquer it, Joseph Schooling’s achievements could be remembered as just the first splash.
by GeQvP5TJlM | Jan 13, 2021 | News
Imagine receiving the job opportunity of a lifetime at age 28 and putting it on the back burner.
That’s what Margo Geer did with an assist from her future employer, the University of Alabama.
It’s clear Geer has other fish to fry.
In late December when Greg Byrne, the Crimson Tide’s director of athletics, offered her the position of head coach for the Alabama men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs, Geer was intent on competing as a sprint freestyler at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
She said it “didn’t really cross my mind” to stop swimming and immediately take the plum job.
A world champion and four-time 2019 Pan American Games gold medalist, Geer was a volunteer assistant coach with the Alabama team while also training with head coach Coley Stickels.
When Stickels decided to step down to focus on coaching elite athletes, Byrne turned to Geer. They had a long history, having met when he was the athletic director at the University of Arizona and she was a three-time NCAA champion for the school and Pac-12 Woman of the Year in 2015.
But Geer wasn’t ready to take the full-time plunge into the working world. She asked if Alabama would wait until she had completed her competitive career and Byrne agreed.
“That was one of the first things that I talked to Greg about,” Geer said, “that I had put a lot of time and energy in – and other people had put a lot of time and energy into the run-up to the Olympics – and it was something I didn’t really want to cut short. It’s still very much a huge opportunity to just perform at my best. I really wanted to finish it out and end on my terms.”
Floating Start Date
Geer plans to begin her tenure as the Alabama head coach in August after the Games. However, if she does not qualify for Tokyo at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming in late June, she will take the reins sooner.
Alabama announced Stickels’ departure on the same day it named Geer as the next permanent head coach.
“We were fortunate to have an exceptional candidate right here in Tuscaloosa for this position and are thrilled that Margo will be our next head coach,” Byrne said. “She has one of the most impressive lists of accolades, both at the collegiate level and internationally. I’ve known Margo for many years and she is well-respected, talented and extremely hardworking. We are certainly supportive of her continuing to train for the 2021 Olympic Team trials and look forward to having her fully on board when her competitive career is complete.”
In the meantime, Ozzie Quevedo, who was an Alabama assistant, is the interim head coach.
Geer is still training with Stickels’ elite group in Tuscaloosa. While she is not coaching the Crimson Tide from the pool deck, she remains a part of the program by sharing her vision for the future with current team members as well as with recruits.
Geer’s news definitely made waves in the swimming world since she was viewed as an Olympic contender in her prime rather than as the next head coach of a major program.
It also was an unorthodox move given Geer’s age and the fact she had never been more than a volunteer assistant coach – at Ohio State and Alabama – for a college program. In her only other significant coaching job, Geer was a part-time assistant with an 8-and-under club group at the same time she was at Ohio State.
“I’ve never been a head coach before, but that doesn’t exactly scare me away from the duties that it takes to be good at it,” Geer said. “I’ve been around a lot of great minds and I’ve worked with a lot of them personally. I haven’t just seen them from afar or studied their workouts on a piece of paper. I’ve actually done them.”
Leadership Roles
She had already proven precocious as a leader. At Arizona, Geer became a team captain for the first time as a sophomore, continuing in the role as a junior and senior.
“I absolutely respect experience, but I’ve also never been afraid to step into a leadership role and take on that sort of challenge,” Geer said.
She said she learned from coach Bill Dorenkott at Ohio State that to be a good coach, “You have to have good character, you’ve got to have competence in your sport and you’ve got to be able to make connections. When I boil it down, I think I bring value in all three of those areas and I can get better at all of those those things.”
Rick DeMont, the 1972 Olympian who coached Geer at Arizona, said she is “super together.”
“She’s down-to-earth, very honest, very smart, very well-read,” DeMont said. “She’s pretty quiet, but when words come out, they’re good, they’re strong. She’s loyal and a pleasure to coach because she’s a student of the sport.”
DeMont said Geer has a really efficient stroke and an awareness “to the nth degree.”
“I was all about that hyper awareness,” Geer said, “like how can we just drop a tenth of a second? When you’re talking about that minuscule amount of time, it’s the smallest little detail, and the smallest little things that matter. And I think from a coaching perspective, it’s good to have that mindset, but also just being able to simplify everything for the kids. It doesn’t have to be overcomplicated.”
by GeQvP5TJlM | Jan 13, 2021 | News
Jessie Diggins’ tear through the Tour de Ski continues, this time with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it third-place finish in the 10-kilometer classic pursuit Wednesday in Toblach, Italy.
Overall tour leader Diggins missed her third win of the event by less than a second, while overall world cup leader Rosie Brennan was not far behind her in fourth place. The result keeps the American duo 1-2 in the tour standings after five of eight races, and also together in the top three in the overall world cup standings.
Starting first as the tour leader, Diggins raced ahead early but fell on a downhill portion and joined a lead pack with Sweden’s Ebba Andersson, Russia’s Yulia Stupak and Brennan, with the foursome racing about 20 seconds ahead of the chase group at the 4.2K mark.
That group stayed together until the final quarter of the race, when they dropped Brennan.
After combing through the snow covered pine trees in northern Italy, Stupak won a sprint to the finish, crossing the line at 29:24.7. Andersson was just .7 of a second behind her, and Diggins was .1 of a second behind Andersson. Brennan coasted into fourth just over 17 seconds behind Stupak.
With the win Diggins has now reached the podium in all five Tour de Ski races so far, with two of them being wins. Diggins, who in 2018 partnered with Kikkan Randall to win Team USA’s first Olympic gold medal in the sport, is also the only American to have finished the Tour de Ski on the podium, having taken third in 2018.
Brennan also remains in contention as the tour moves to Val di Fiemme, Italy, this weekend for the final three races. She’s finished among the top-six in all five races so far and on the podium twice.
Through five races, Diggins maintains a 22-second lead over Brennan in the overall tour standings, while Stupak is third 58 seconds behind Diggins.
Brennan, meanwhile, maintains her lead in the overall and distance world cup standings, with Diggins third in both.
The Tour de Ski wraps up this weekend in Val di Fiemme with classic mass starts Friday and classic sprints Saturday followed by freestyle mass start races Sunday.
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