COVID-19 Pandemic, Sports, Athlete’s Triangle: Interactions and Recommendations

Abstract

Although COVID-19 affects people of all ages and athletes have less comorbiditys, it is important to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the sports community to slow down the pandemic. It was aimed to summarize the effects of athletes from the pandemic process in COVID-19 process and make suggestions for sports. The matches played until the decisions to play without spectator and to postpone/cancel were called “biobombs” and played an important role in the spread of the pandemic. In athletes, COVID-19 not only caused disruption of training/competition programs, but athletes who did not catch the disease were also affected by epidemic disease through cancellation and loss of income. National public health institutions, epidemiologists, sports organizations/federations, clubs, athletes/health researchers and practitioners should collaborate to cope with the epidemic during the COVID-19 pandemic, to determine the best restart time, to establish confidence in sports organizations, to protect all groups and sports participation.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Sports
• Athletes

COVID-19 Pandemisi, Spor, Sporcu Üçgeni: Etkilenimler ve Öneriler

Abstract

COVID-19 her yaş ve kesimden kişiyi etkilemekle birlikte, sporcular daha az komorbiditeye sahip olmalarına rağmen pandeminin yavaşlatılması açısından spor camiasında COVID-19’un yayılmasını önlemek önemlidir. Bu çalışmayla, COVID-19 sürecinde, sporcuların pandemi sürecinden etkilenimlerinin özetlenmesi ve spora yönelik önerilerde bulunulması amaçlanmıştır. Pandemi sürecinde liglerin ve turnuvaların seyircisiz oynanması ve ileri bir tarihe erteleme/iptal etme kararlarının alınmasına kadar oynanan maçlar birer “biyolojik bomba” olarak adlandırılmış ve pandemi yayılımında önemli rol oynamışlardır. Sporcularda COVID-19 sadece antrenman/müsabaka programlarının bozulmasına neden olmakla kalmamış aynı zamanda hastalığa yakalanmayan sporcular da müsabakaların iptali ve gelir kaybı yoluyla da salgın hastalıktan etkilenmişlerdir. COVID-19 pandemi sürecinde ve sonrasında salgının negatif etkilerini en aza indirebilmek, sportif faaliyetlerin tekrar başlayabilmesi için en uygun zamanı belirleyebilmek, spor camiasının ve seyircilerin sağlıklarını koruyabilmek, spor organizasyonlarına güven oluşturabilmek ve her düzeyde spor katılımını sağlayabilmek açısından ulusal halk sağlığı kurumları, epidemiyologlar, spor organizasyonları/federasyonları, spor kulüpleri ve sporcu sağlığı alanında çalışan tüm araştırmacılar ve uygulayıcılar işbirliği yapmalıdır.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Spor
• Sporcu

References

1. Anderson, R. M., Heesterbeek, H., Klinkenberg, D., & Hollingsworth, T. D. (2020). How will country-based mitigation measures influence the course of the COVID-19 epidemic? The Lancet, 395(10228), 931-934.
2. Chen, N., Zhou, M., Dong, X., Qu, J., Gong, F., Han, Y., et al. (2020). Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. The Lancet, 395(10223), 507-513.
3. Committee., I. O. (2020). Joint statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee.
4. Corsini, A., Bisciotti, G. N., Eirale, C., & Volpi, P. (2020). Football cannot restart soon during the COVID-19 emergency! A critical perspective from the Italian experience and a call for action. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102306.
5. Dores, H., & Cardim, N. (2020). Return to play after COVID-19: a sport cardiologist’s view. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102482.
6. Futterman M, P. T. & Keh A. . (2020). As coronavirus spreads, Olympics face ticking clock and a tough call. . The New York Times.
7. Gilat, R., & Cole, B. J. (2020). Editorial Commentary: COVID-19, medicine, and sports. Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation, 10.1016/j. asmr.2020.04.003.
8. Halabchi, F., Ahmadinejad, Z., & Selk-Ghaffari, M. (2020). COVID-19 epidemic: exercise or not to exercise; that is the question! Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, 11:1.

9. Jukic, I., Calleja-González, J., Cos, F., Cuzzolin, F., Olmo, J., Terrados, N., et al. (2020). Strategies and solutions for team sports athletes in isolation due to COVID-19. Sports, 10.3390/sports8040056
10. Jukic, I., Milanovic, L., Krakan, I., Njaradi, N., Calleja-González, J., Cuzzolin, F., et al. (2020). Strength and conditioning in top level team sports: An individual discipline. 18th International Conference “Physical Conditioning of Athletes.
11. Lu, R., Zhao , X., Li, J., Niu, P., Yang, B., Wu, H., et al. (2020). Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding. The Lancet, 395(10224), 565-574.
12. Mann, R. H., Clift, B. C., Boykoff, J., & Bekker, S. (2020). Athletes as community; athletes in community: covid-19, sporting mega-events and athlete health protection. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102433.
13. Roy-Davis, K., Wadey, R., & Evans, L. (2017). A grounded theory of sport injury-related growth. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 6(1), 35.
14. Rudan, I. (2020). A cascade of causes that led to the COVID-19 tragedy in Italy and in other European Union countries. Journal of Global Health, 10(1).
15. Timpka, T. (2020). Sports health during the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic. Sports Medicine (Auckland, Nz), 1.
16. Toresdahl, B. G., & Asif, I. M. (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): considerations for the competitive athlete. Sports Health, 12(3):221-224.
17. Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu. (2020). “Futbola Dönüş” Öneri Protokolü. Retrieved May 17, 2020 from website: https://www.tff.org/Resources/TFF/Auto/d1eb888623754fc2b4f1cf02800f82e3.PDF
18. Zheng, Y.-Y., Ma, Y.-T., Zhang, J.-Y., & Xie, X. (2020). COVID-19 and the cardiovascular system. Nature Reviews Cardiology, 17(5), 259-260.