January 4 2021 - Clarifications from viaSport to the current COVID-19 restrictions

Article #3451
2021-01-04
Published By: Anders Hestdalen

As the government made some updates to the restrictions annouced in the written order, Viasport has as of December 28th, 2020 updated their website and FAQ to reflect the updated information.

For BC Alpine the following clarifications are important:

  • “Adult team sport” revised to “group sport”: Group sport is defined as sporting activities involving more than one person and includes training and practice for an individual or a team sport, but does not include sport for children or youth, varsity sport or high-performance athlete sport. Group sport (i.e. sport for those 22 years of age or older) is only permitted in groups of up to two people (e.g. singles tennis or an athlete and a coach training session). Outdoor group sport is only permitted in groups of up to four people (e.g. four individuals may run together or four individuals could run soccer drills).
  • Travel to home club: Individuals are permitted to travel to their home club for the purpose of sport. Home club is defined as the sport organization, club, or facility at which a person is registered for ongoing sport programming. Individuals should not carpool with other participants.
  • High performance exemption: High performance athletes are individuals who have been identified to a targeted athlete list with the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific by their respective Provincial Sport Organization or National Sport Organization. A person who is a high-performance athlete who is already training in B.C. may train, compete and travel for that purpose if they follow the COVID safety protocols of their respective provincial or national sport organization.
  • Sport for children and youth means an activity which is delivered by a provincial sport organization or a local sport organization and may include participants who are under 22 years of age, but does not include varsity sports. The PHO Order for Events and Gatherings differentiates between adult and youth sport activities.
  • All participants must maintain a distance of three metres from one another while participating in the sport activity/on the field of play. 

As a reminder, this PHO Order is in place until January 8, 2021, at which time government officials will determine if extensions or changes are required based on COVID-19 transmission data.