The Malta Gymnastics Federation faces well known challenges in hosting its National Championships in women’s artistic gymnastics. Limited resources and a small pool of judges create a potential for bias and inefficiency. For this case study, we talked to Ms Francesca Borg, Technical Director of the Malta Gymnastics Federation, about how the Federation streamlined the 2024 National Championships (click on your mobile to watch the competition) using Elevien, an innovative platform for gymnastics competitions. Read on for a deep dive into organising a large gymnastics competition with remote judges, dealing with complaints and delays, and finding new ways to utilise technology for better gymnastics.

Challenge

The Malta Gymnastics Federation has 8 affiliated clubs and over 70 gymnasts of different age groups, with some regularly appearing on European Championships and World Cup Events. However, being set on a small island can make gymnastics events challenging.

Gathering this gymnastics community at the National Championships is always a balancing act for Francesca, the only international judge in Malta. In organising a competition of this level, her primary role should be Supervisor Judge. However, with a small number of local judges, she always has to step in and evaluate some routines:

“I am limited with controlling the other judging panels. The judges usually try to figure out the scores together and ask me questions about deductions, so improper scores are common. But there is not much I can do; in the end, I have my own routines to judge. And I am not immune to bias either.”

The main challenge the Malta Gymnastics Federation has faced with National Championships is a shortage of judges. When asked if she considered alternative solutions to solve this, Francesca explained her options:

“Separating the event into two weekends creates issues with the facility and equipment. Scheduling the judges can be complicated too, as this is not their primary job. There are just not enough judges in Malta, and bringing foreign judges would be impossible with our budget: everyone has to fly here, and tourist accommodation is not cheap.”

Two more challenges have stopped Francesca from properly overseeing the competition: hectic scheduling and frequent complaints.

“We did not have proper starting orders. The order used to be quite flexible and changed throughout the competition, so everyone would approach the judges and ask who’s next instead of a salute. This made the schedule run late. (…) We spent about an hour resolving complaints; it takes a while to find a video of the routine in question from someone in the audience, then explaining the reasoning behind the scores. It made for a frustrating experience, both for me and for the judges.”

Solution

Francesca first heard about Elevien from the Portuguese Gymnastics Federation, who use Elevien to get remote judges for control competitions. After realising that this approach could benefit the Malta National Championships, she planned the implementation of Elevien with Marija, Customer Success Manager at Elevien.

The first step to ensuring proper supervision was finding remote international judges. For this, Francesca used Elevien’s judge database with 50+ FIG brevet judges available to work from home using the Elevien scoring system. She found five available international judges from the database and built judge juries of one international and up to four local judges for each WAG apparatus.

“I knew you could judge online with Elevien, but I thought it was just another scoring system. Now I know I can easily collaborate with international judges, and do it regularly. I am very thankful to the judges who were available for me.”

Elevien’s video recording feature was crucial to a successful competition. For the international judges to participate in the competition, there had to be a video of each gymnast’s routine on each apparatus. The Malta National Championships used some basic equipment for this:

• Four smartphones (one each for Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam and Floor) operated by volunteers at the venue,
• A stable Wi-Fi connection,
• Four SIM cards with mobile data (in case of Wi-Fi connectivity issues),
• Four power banks (added layer of safety).

Elevien advised Francesca to set up a test competition during a training session at the venue to ensure everyone knew how to use the app on-site. The judges from Malta learned how to use Elevien for judging in a separate video meeting with Marija, Customer Success Manager at Elevien. Filip, Product Designer at Elevien, flew to Malta to assist with the competition on-site.

“Marija shared helpful insights about judging and had an answer to every question. And Filip was right by my side in Malta. He helped out with the Wi-Fi, assisted with recording, and made sure that we knew how to use the system if, for example, a gymnast did not compete. Their support was invaluable.”

Result

With Elevien, Francesca managed to achieve her main goal: supervise the judging process without having to evaluate routines herself.

“Getting international judges involved meant that I could remove myself from the equation. I was able to control the competition and supervise the scoring without having to judge routines myself.”

Francesca used the Elevien Supervisor Judge view from her laptop. When we asked about her experience with Elevien as a Supervisor judge, she said:

“The Supervisor role in Elevien was an excellent experience. I knew exactly what was happening at all times. The video playback and the introduction of neutral international judges gave us a great boost. I didn’t need to deal with issues that, to be fair, don’t need to be there in the first place. It gave me peace of mind that the technical side was going well.”

On the judges’, gymnasts’ and others’ reactions to Elevien, Francesca acknowledged that new things are always challenging and that it is natural to be reserved. Her main focus was getting the local judges on board, which turned out to be very successful:

“This time, they were sat apart and could not see the other scores. They had to trust their gut, and it served as great practice for them. In fact, one judge came up to me after the competition to thank me. They understood that they could learn from the international judges; after all, brevet licenses are very recent and well-accredited.”

Francesca mentioned inquiries and other complaints about the scores as a source of frustration and delay and noted there were significantly fewer inquiries this year:

“Elevien took some responsibility for the complaints off our backs and gave us the evidence to handle them. For example, someone approached to ask why the judge did not count the handstand. I found the video in Elevien, saw the angle of the handstand, and explained the judge was correct. We usually get about 50 complaints like this. This year, we only got the one, and it was resolved in a minute.”

Elevien changed the usual process of organising the National Championships. Francesca highlighted the starting orders as a great step forward in that regard:

“This year, we had the starting orders in Elevien and we printed the lists on notice boards next to each apparatus. Everyone knew the starting order, and we clarified that it wouldn’t change unless a gymnast was not competing. This helped a lot with organisation.”

During the Malta National Championships and for three days after, this competition was viewed by 1500 people over 4000 times. Most views were from Malta, but there was also a significant interest from other European countries and beyond. This global audience was able to watch the event in Elevien because the organiser decided to make this a public competition. All public competitions in Elevien are open to watch for anyone who has the app on their phone, and any organiser can do the same for their event if they wish to achieve the same results. All they need to do is to contact the Elevien team at [email protected] – our team is happy to help.

Next steps

After a resounding success with Elevien at the Malta National Championships, Francesca is looking into new ways of improving gymnastics in Malta with Elevien. She now organises control competitions with remote international judges and cites a great experience across the board:

“I feel that it’s been more positive for everyone involved, especially the gymnasts and the coaches. When they have to look at a routine, they know where to go. The videos are properly taken and they can slowly analyse it. And there’s a lot they can see when they concentrate: it’s a totally different perspective, and it helps them a lot.”

Francesca is eager to introduce Elevien to improve as many aspects of gymnastics in Malta as possible.

“Now I can understand much more of how I can utilize Elevien, which I honestly intend to. Gymnastics is our full-time job, and we will surely incorporate Elevien in upcoming competitions. I would advise everyone to try it.“

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