SINGAPORE – The Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) has struck a three-year sponsorship deal with global health club group Fitness First that will see S$1.3 million worth of international memberships being given to selected Singapore national athletes who are based either locally or overseas.

The deal, which makes Fitness First the official fitness partner of the SNOC, will begin in January 2016.

It will enable around 200 athletes from 28 national sports associations (NSAs) to get access to the network of 16 Fitness First gyms in Singapore, as well as Fitness First clubs in 15 countries, including Australia, Hong Kong, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Fitness First has 369 gyms world-wide.

SNOC Secretary-General Chris Chan said that getting access to the wide range of gym facilities outside of their national training sessions, and having qualified Fitness First coaches tailor specific training programmes for them will definitely boost the Republic’s athletes’ preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics next August, as well as major Games in 2018 such as the Youth Olympic Games, Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.

He added that the deal will be a boon especially for the non-carded athletes, who do not get access to the gyms at the Singapore Sports Institute.

“I really hope to see the next level of athletes who are not carded athletes exploit this,” he said at this morning’s sponsorship event. “What I am also excited about is that we are now able to give two of our athletes who are studying in Sydney memberships to Fitness First gyms as well.

“Otherwise people like (national sailors) Colin Cheng and Scott Glenn Sydney who are both based in Sydney will have to cough up money (for their gym needs). That is another area we hope can materialise and further the strength and conditioning of our athletes (who are) overseas.”

Fitness First Asia chief executive officer Simon Flint said that a new facility which will be opened at Capital Tower early next year will be a high performance training centre that can cater more specifically to the needs of Singapore national athletes.

“The key components of the club are measurement and training…  That club will, in particular, be very supportive for people training at the elite level,” he said.

“There will be training regimes built around training for triathlons for example, with particular attention given to the science behind the training, not just clocking in the hours, but clocking effective hours. The trainers there will also be able to scan and measure various data that is important for athletes to track, and therefore they will report these back to their coaches to monitor. The trainers who will be involved in that programme will be the more experienced ones. 

“I am excited to launch that in the new year. It will be particularly be very useful for the athletes.”

Fitness First has been supporting a number of Team Singapore athletes in recent years. These include the Singapore netball team, the national rugby sevens men’s and women’s teams, fencer Lim Wei Wen and 2013 SEA Games marathon champion Mok Ying Ren.