Ice Gladiators go virtual this year in Latvia

Usually the event is hosted by the city of Valmiera

The municipal website of the Latvian city of Valmiera announced today that the annual ice sports school competition ‘Ice Gladiators’ will have to change the format this year but organizers have also assured that it will still happen with the implementation of digital technology and some creativity.

This year, students who study together, or basically belong to a social bubble, will have to complete challenges, film them and send them to the organizers for evaluation.

This is the tenth anniversary of Ice Gladiators

Officials are of the opinion that pandemic conditions or not, it is important to keep the spirit of children fresh and their bodies active under one form or another that will also avoid large crowd gatherings.

The event will be largely a virtual affair but that is also an increasing commonality these days. The goal is to make it as interactive as possible. Organizers have prepared motivational and explanation videos for all the participants. In the first one of these, for example, Latvian national hockey player Juris Štāls gives an inspirational talk about the importance of doing outdoor sports even in winter.

More videos will be sent to the participating schools from the Vidzeme region. These will detail the tasks that students will have to complete in teams in outdoor conditions, depending on the weather of course.

In total, there are six exercises to be completed and filmed. Once, this is done, they need to be presented and edited into one video (up to 2 minutes long) or a photo collage and sent to the organizers by 15 February by e-mail.

How will the teams be evaluated? Importance is given to aspects such as friendship (or teamwork), creativity, sports activities and the inclusion of the project symbols. There will be three group divisions divided by age in school grades 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12.

The prizes are unchanged: excursion trips for the winners.