Blog 24: The impact of COVID-19 on Youth Sports
In the wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the sports industry had come to a complete halt. As the health of athletes and others involved was a priority, major sporting events at international, regional and national levels were cancelled or postponed. From marathons to football tournaments, athletics championships to basketball games, handball to ice hockey, rugby, cricket, sailing, weightlifting to wrestling and more. For the first time in history, The Olympics and Paralympics were postponed from 2020 to 2021. COVID-19 affected young athletes too. While athletes already in the professional fields were struggling to deal with the disappointing news, for young athletes, this news was earth-shattering.
Just like professional athletes, many young and ambitious athletes were training for months or even years to participate in sports events which were then cancelled. While adult athletes had already accepted the situation and began to modify their training regimens, young athletes were still coping with the shock of the situation and had a much harder time accepting the reality and wondering how such a catastrophe would impact their sports careers.
UNDERSTANDING THE ANXIETY
There's no doubt that young athletes had to deal with a lot of uncertainty and stress. They had lost the ability to play their sport with no clue of when is the next time they were going to step on the field. They were wondering, "What does this mean for the tryouts I had coming up?" Or maybe they were asking themselves, "What if the tournament which got cancelled was my only chance?"
One such story of Julia Gagliardi, a senior at an American high school in New Jersey, “The best word is surreal,” Julia says. “This all didn’t really hit me until last Tuesday, which was the first day we had classes from home. All of a sudden, my classmates and I were like: Is this it?” As the captain of her softball team, she added, “It has been eating away at me because I want this season so badly. Me and all my teammates. This was going to be our year.”
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY DURING THE PANDEMIC
The global outbreak of COVID-19 had resulted in the closure of gyms, stadiums, pools, physiotherapy centres and playgrounds. Many individuals, therefore, were not able to actively participate in their regular individual or group sporting or physical activities outside of their homes. People who were involved in contact sports had the toughest time, there was no way they could arrange a match with one of their opponents considering the spread of the virus and the safety protocols. This lead to less physical activity, longer screen time, irregular sleep patterns and the worst diets. This resulted in weight gain and loss of motivation.
Many young athletes did control their physical activities by training daily with whatever equipment was available during the lockdown. We cannot forget what they have gone through, getting to play in major tournaments of any sport before turning 18 is a major step for a passionate and ambitious athlete which helps them in their future. While choosing a path of sports for a career can be fun, it can also be extremely challenging at times. We don't know how many of these young athletes regularly trained during the lockdown but, surely, some of them lost hopes while the others kept on grinding. This is the reality of what happened to all the athletes around the world when COVID hit. The reality cannot be sidelined by saying "It's ok" but by accepting that one needs motivation and helping him/her rise on top again.
By - Jai Deshmukh
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