The Pandemic, Sports Edition
The other day I heard a podcast that touched on the pandemic and how it related to sports and I realized that I’ve never stopped and thought about the pandemic's direct effect on athletics.
Since I participate in society and don’t live under a rock, I am aware of the shutdown protocols affecting our world in a broader sense, but hadn’t appreciated how the day to day of sports was turned upside down.
Of course everyone's work environment and daily routine was changed, but for athletes, work couldn’t just resume via Zoom. After some trial and error, it was pretty clear that “contact” with other players was necessary and playing in masks was pretty unrealistic. Cue the creation of the “bubble.”
The NBA set the standard of how to continue competition by isolating all participating athletes from the rest of society and effectively from the virus. Variations of the NBA model were adopted by other major league sports associations and collegiate programs with mandatory testing and hyper strict regulations when full isolation could not be achieved.
In theory, this was awesome because it allowed sports to continue while minimizing risks of covid. In reality, it was a little more complicated.
In the Covid age, athletes are given zero break from their sport– literally living in a “sports world” constructed to revolve around their leagues, practices, and competitions. Admittedly, it's cool that sports were (and continue to be) played while so many other professions were halted. But the isolation that the pandemic requires is mentally grueling.
As an athlete, you can’t focus on only your sport 24/7. Naturally it's in the back of your mind as you live your life–you make decisions knowing you have practice the next day and need to prioritize your performance. But 24/7 sport? No way. This is a recipe for inevitable burnout.
The only comparable experience I can think of is preseason training, which lasts around two weeks, maximum three. Essentially you eat, sleep and breathe your sport for those two or three weeks , but it's a bonding experience that you go through with your teammates, knowing the workouts will pay off in the long run, and, more importantly, it’ll be over soon. With Covid, neither of these things are true. As we’ve learned over the past two years, this pandemic is not a couple week stint.
Part of making yourself successful is being able to give yourself mental breaks to “get away” from your sport. A coach once told me that if you aren’t happy, you won’t play well. I 100% believe this to be true. Refreshing yourself from your sport is not only relieving, it's essential. With Covid, that refresh is impossible.
Players have been in “preseason grind mode” for a year and a half and things still aren’t back to normal. This takes a toll on athletes' health, both mentally and physically. Emotional instability, burnout, and divisive opinions concerning vaccine mandates are just a few of the many stressors brought on by Covid that will have repercussions in the athletic world for years to come.
As any athlete knows, you have to be at your best mentally to reach optimal performance and with Covid, that is all but guaranteed to be impossible. Athletes have and will continue to learn to cope with the pandemic's effect on their mental and physical health, but their institutions should also be exploring ways in which they can aid them to get back to the best version of themselves.
As I said before, happy athletes are successful athletes and sports organizations investing in their athlete’s wellbeing will only further contribute to the potential of their team and the prosperity of their program. Not to mention it's the right thing to do.
As regulations continue to relax and the world gets a better handle on how to adapt to this “new normal,” it is imperative that the sports world keep in mind the mental toll the pandemic has taken on athletes and it’s residual effects on sports.
So much news surrounding sports organizations has been negative lately, this is an opportunity for them to get it right and treat their athletes with compassion when faced with adversity.
I’m holding my breath, hoping they do the right thing this time.
-Maggie