Sonia Ong On How She Is Driving Positive Change Through Her Initiatives

A passion for health and wellness led sonia ong to start a new sport in singapore and design a programme that encourages active lifestyles. The founder and executive director of the Singapore wellness association tells annabel tan how she is driving change through her initiatives on the physical, social and mental wellness fronts

- Sonia Ong

On a Baltic Sea cruise last year, Sonia Ong came across an unusual sport in Oslo, Norway known as rollerskiing. Using skis on wheels, it is the off-snow equivalent to skiing and is how professional Nordic skiers train in the summer. But it has also grown to become a competitive sport of its own, and it’s especially popular in Europe. Intrigued by the idea of summer skiing, Sonia thought it was the perfect sport to introduce to Singapore and the region.

“A friend once joked that skiing is Singapore’s new national sport,” says the 37-year-old, “because so many Singaporeans travel overseas to ski. One time I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw that five people I knew were in Niseko at the same time!”

In September this year, Sonia officially launched Urbanski, a rollerski training and travel company that offers complete day trips to resorts in neighbouring cities like Johor Bahru and Batam, but also crafts bespoke rollerski tours around the world. Developed in consultation with Olympic skiers and rollerski trainers, Urbanski’s rollerski curriculum is approved by the Singapore Rollerski Association, which Sonia also founded. She is also the director of Rollerski at the Singapore Rollersports Federation. This month, Urbanski is opening a new gym at *Scape, where it will hold a group workout class called Rollercore, where a class of 20-30 people do exercises in rollerskis to disco music.

“My bhag [Big Hairy Audacious Goal] is to take Urbanski global, and push for rollerski to become an Olympic sport,” declares Sonia. “I want a billion people around the world to try rollerskiing. Many might not like it because it is quite challenging, but maybe 30 will go pro and we might have an Olympic sport! How exciting would that be?”

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