On Saturday 17 July 2021, the FIG Gymnastics for All Committee had invited all National Gymnastics Federations and Continental Gymnastics Unions to participate in the virtual 2021 GfA Colloquium. Karen Norden and Dawn Ho, from Singapore Gymnastics joined other International Federations online for the 2021 Gymnastics for All (GfA) Colloquium for an afternoon of catch up with old and new friends online but more importantly hear how other Federations have been working around the Covid pandemic. 

The last Colloquium was organised in 2019 in Lisbon, POR and everyone had been looking forward to the subsequent Colloquium that was planned in Hong Kong 2020. Unfortunately that had to be cancelled due to the emergence of the pandemic and with the situation still unsure, the FIG GfA Committee decidely organised this year’s GfA Colloquium virtually.

While it was quite different to the normal colloquium as the GfA community were not able to come together in person for the three days of fun, sharing and learning but as we know, passionate gymnastics people are resourceful and the community were still able to make the most of the situation. The session was made up of:

• A kaleidoscope of different presentations from Federations on their GfA activities over the past 18 months during the pandemic. It was exciting to see that despite the pandemic many Federations had activities happening in Gymnastics Clubs and organisations. With a lot of creativity and enthusiasm coaches found new ideas on how to keep the activity going. For example, we know about groups training outdoors with fewer participants and with big distances. Gymnasts could also follow training online and practice at home.
• Discussion with the GfA community, uniting together as we affirmed the philosophy of Gymnastics for All - Fun, Fitness, Fundamentals and Friendship and the inclusiveness and benefits of gymnastics. We celebrated what gymnastics can offer as a healthy activity, open for everybody with no discrimination and how it is a lifelong activity.
• We were privy to see first-hand the work that the FIG had been doing on the Coaching Academy programme with the new FIG online education platform and the GfA Committees hard work on the FIG Foundation Course.
• The local organising committee (LOC) from the World Gymnaestrada 2023 Amsterdam gave an update on the preparation for the event, giving us all hope that it will not be long when we come together again.

More information on the Colloquium can be found here https://www.gymnastics.sport/site/news/displaynews.php?idNews=3231