SINGAPORE – Sentosa Island, Marina Bay and the Singapore Sports Hub could become the setting when Singapore becomes the first Southeast Asian country to host the World Aquatics Championships in 2025.
At Sports Singapore’s Spotlight Series held on January 16, Singapore Aquatics president Mark Chai released a promotional video for the event, which will involve more than 2,000 athletes.
The Sports Hub will be the focal point, with swimming and artistic swimming events to be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, while water polo and diving will be held at the nearby OCBC Aquatic Centre.
Open water swimming and high diving take place in the Marina Bay area and Sentosa Island respectively.
Chai, who co-chairs the local organizing committee, said the World Aquatics Championships and World Aquatics Masters Championships will be held in July and August to coincide with National Day celebrations.
He noted that training camps for some of the 200 national federations could be held at local or international schools.
He added that besides high-performance matches, the championship also provided an opportunity to commemorate the country’s 60th anniversary of independence.
“We are still in the planning stages and it is a work in progress, but it gives us an idea of how Singapore can host the event,” he told The Straits Times.
The only other Asian countries to have hosted this massive event are Japan, China and South Korea. Qatar will host the 2024 Games in February.
Mr Chai said: “Much of our success in hosting events in Singapore is due to the private sector being innovative and thinking outside the box to deliver standards.
“We hope that people from various industries such as technology and fintech can be part of the Singapore 2025 story.”
He was one of 350 stakeholders who took part in the inaugural Sports and Fitness Industry Spotlight Networking Series, where Minister for Culture, Communities and Youth Edwin Tong highlighted the number of initiatives to revitalize the sector. They announced new initiatives and events.
Sport Data Exchange Singapore, a web-based platform that facilitates data sharing between players within the sports ecosystem, has been launched.
For the first time, national body SportSG will utilize data from the annual National Sports Participation Survey and a selected dataset of ActiveSG facility and gym usage.
Among the benefits is helping sports facility operators, event management companies, and fitness instructors better understand demographics and business trends.
Corporate Innovation and Capacity Development Grants to foster collaborative research and development between sport and adjacent industries and upskilled sports professionals have also been enhanced, funding projects with up to $1 million, up from $180,000 previously. It is scheduled to be done.
The 1st Singapore Urban Sports and Fitness Festival will be held in August, combining fitness races, urban sports, extensive workouts and sports conferences.
Mr Tong said: “We are about to make great strides in sports, wellness, innovation and technology.
“With the assets of Sports Singapore and Callan Alive, we want to be at the center of that innovation.
“We are building on these innovative solutions to make Singapore healthy, enable Singaporeans to enjoy sport and enable all elite athletes and sportswomen to aim higher, faster and longer. We want to promote it.”