COVID-19: Impact of a "Global Player"-A Reflection 1 Year On

It is about a year now that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been dominating our private and professional lives across the world causing changes in “game rules” in all situations of daily life. We all had to experience and adjust to things like social distancing, wearing a facemask, strict hygiene precautions, lockdown, and so on. All such measures—as annoying as we may perceive them to be—had to be implemented to save peoples’ lives. But they also massively influenced the way we live, socialize, work, . . . and play and watch sports. In his International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance editorial, “You’ll never walk alone,”1 Jos de Koning already envisaged some of the challenges the virus would not only require us to rise to, but also the opportunities the crisis could bring us. A year ago, everything came to a standstill. That lockdown had a massive impact also on the world of sports. Organizers had to cancel or postpone events because of the pandemic, and the list of sporting events moved from 2020 to 2021 got longer on a weekly basis. The rescheduling of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo to 2021 with remaining uncertainty are probably the most prominent examples. In its 124 years history so far, the Olympic Games have been disrupted only by worldwide tragic events like the 2 World Wars in 1916, 1940, and 1944.2 At a national level, for example in team sports, the leagues were interrupted mid-season. In the English Premier League 2019/20 season, we all remember the FC Liverpool’s winning streak and then suddenly the safe-believed title win at risk. While there was considerable debate about the restarting of professional sport during the COVID-19 pandemic, for many players and clubs, it was a sign of relief that following the successful return to men’s football competition in the German Bundesliga, other leagues could also adopt the developed health and safety procedures3 and return to competition. Professional football/soccer and other events like Formula 1 are characterized by a huge media presence and consequently big money is involved. They can afford the cost incurred by changing schedules, logistical challenges, and repeated SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing. In contrast, niche sports neither have the infrastructure nor the money to implement the same strict policies in terms of polymerase chain reaction testing and player management. Given the smaller or even missing media coverage, there is no inc