2020 Snow Australia Interschools Event At Perisher Cancelled

July 27th, 2020

 

The interschools are the biggest on snow events in Australia but the 2020 events have been cancelled. Photo: Snow Australia

 

Mountainwatch | Media release

Monday July 27: It is with significant disappointment that Snow Australia Interschools and Perisher announce that the 2020 Subaru Snow  Australia Interschools Event, scheduled to be held from 6th to 12th September, will be cancelled.

Snow Australia Interschools has closely monitored and purposefully embraced COVID-19 requirements and developments since early March. Key changes governing NSW Community Sport COVID-19 operations that were introduced on 16 July, together with rising COVID-19 case numbers in NSW and an increase in the Reported NSW Case Locations (‘Hot-Spots’), will prevent a growing number of eligible participants from NSW schools and locations, travelling and competing with certainty at Perisher in September.

The NSW Office of Sport, Snow Australia Interschools, and Perisher are committed to ensuring that the safety, health and well-being of our Event participants, parents, teachers, volunteers, spectators, workers and mountain communities is of absolute priority. The NSW Office of Sport has appropriately mandated that we:

– Take all reasonable steps to minimise the number of spectators attending community sports events, such as Interschool Snowsports.

– Ensure processes are in place to exclude participants (including spectators and officials) if they have attended any of the reported case locations listed on the NSW Health website, which currently totals 40 NSW locations. In addition, we must also minimise co-mingling of participants from different schools / regions, and ensure any spectators comply with 1.5 metres physical distance and have strategies in place to prevent those spectators from different schools / regions and event timeslots, co-mingling.

One of our major 2020 Event objectives was to host an inclusive NSW / ACT / QLD Community Sports activity in the most challenging of years, however these updated public health guidelines and requirements are not conducive to achieving that outcome.

We sincerely thank our School Coordinators, Participants, Parents, Principals, Volunteers, Workers, Resort Staff, Resort and Mountain Communities for their support and acceptance through this most challenging of years.

We also thank our major sponsors – SUBARU, Travelplan Ski, Altitude Lodge Smiggins, for remaining with us in 2020 and supporting our safety-first approach.

Participants that have already entered the competition will receive a refund of the event entry fee, and this will be processed during the next 7-10 days.

We look forward to an exceptional year of Participation, Fun and Renewal in 2021. We will be back bigger and better than ever, and we are also exploring development of a ‘Post-School’ Event during our August States Event week next year, for our current 2020 Year 12 student cohort and other school-leavers.

THANK YOU from the Snow Australia NSW / ACT / QLD Interschools Management Team