impact of covid 19 on sports essay

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The impact of COVID-19 on sport, physical activity and well-being and its effects on social development

Introduction

Sport is a major contributor to economic and social development. Its role is well recognized by Governments, including in the Political Declaration of the 2030 Agenda, which reflects on “the contribution sports make to the empowerment of women and of young people, individuals and communities, as well as to health, education and social inclusion objectives.”

Since its onset, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread to almost all countries of the world. Social and physical distancing measures, lockdowns of businesses, schools and overall social life, which have become commonplace to curtail the spread of the disease, have also disrupted many regular aspects of life, including sport and physical activity. This policy brief highlights the challenges COVID-19 has posed to both the sporting world and to physical activity and well-being, including for marginalized or vulnerable groups. It further provides recommendations for Governments and other stakeholders, as well as for the UN system, to support the safe reopening of sporting events, as well as to support physical activity during the pandemic and beyond.

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events and the implications for social development

To safeguard the health of athletes and others involved, most major sporting events at international, regional and national levels have been cancelled or postponed – from marathons to football tournaments, athletics championships to basketball games, handball to ice hockey, rugby, cricket, sailing, skiing, weightlifting to wrestling and more. The Olympics and Paralympics, for the first time in the history of the modern games, have been postponed, and will be held in 2021.

The global value of the sports industry is estimated at US$756 billion annually. In the face of COVID-19, many millions of jobs are therefore at risk globally, not only for sports professionals but also for those in related retail and sporting services industries connected with leagues and events, which include travel, tourism, infrastructure, transportation, catering and media broadcasting, among others. Professional athletes are also under pressure to reschedule their training, while trying to stay fit at home, and they risk losing professional sponsors who may not support them as initially agreed.

Figure 1: Global Revenue - Sports Industry

Major sporting organisations have shown their solidarity with efforts to reduce the spread of the virus. For example, FIFA has teamed up with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and launched a ‘Pass the message to kick out coronavirus’ campaign led by well-known football players in 13 languages, calling on people to follow five key steps to stop the spread of the disease focused on hand washing, coughing etiquette, not touching one’s face, physical distance and staying home if feeling unwell. Other international sport for development and peace organizations have come together to support one another in solidarity during this time, for example, through periodic online community discussions to share challenges and issues. Participants in such online dialogues have also sought to devise innovative solutions to larger social issues, for example, by identifying ways that sporting organisations can respond to problems faced by vulnerable people who normally participate in sporting programmes in low income communities but who are now unable to, given restriction to movement.

The closure of education institutions around the world due to COVID-19 has also impacted the sports education sector, which is comprised of a broad range of stakeholders, including national ministries and local authorities, public and private education institutions, sports organizations and athletes, NGOs and the business community, teachers, scholars and coaches, parents and, first and foremost, the – mostly young – learners. While this community has been severely impacted by the current crisis, it can also be a key contributor to solutions to contain and overcome it, as well as in promoting rights and values in times of social distancing.

As the world begins to recover from COVID-19, there will be significant issues to be addressed to ensure the safety of sporting events at all levels and the well-being of sporting organizations. In the short term, these will include the adaptation of events to ensure the safety of athletes, fans and vendors, among others. In the medium term, in the face of an anticipated global recession, there may also be a need to take measures to support participation in sporting organizations, particularly for youth sports.

The impact of COVID-19 on physical activity and well-being

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in closure of gyms, stadiums, pools, dance and fitness studios, physiotherapy centres, parks and playgrounds. Many individuals are therefore not able to actively participate in their regular individual or group sporting or physical activities outside of their homes. Under such conditions, many tend to be less physically active, have longer screen time, irregular sleep patterns as well as worse diets, resulting in weight gain and loss of physical fitness. Low-income families are especially vulnerable to negative effects of stay at home rules as they tend to have sub-standard accommodations and more confined spaces, making it difficult to engage in physical exercise.

The WHO recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week. The benefits of such periodic exercise are proven very helpful, especially in times of anxiety, crisis and fear. There are concerns therefore that, in the context of the pandemic, lack of access to regular sporting or exercise routines may result in challenges to the immune system, physical health, including by leading to the commencement of or exacerbating existing diseases that have their roots in a sedentary lifestyle.

Lack of access to exercise and physical activity can also have mental health impacts, which can compound stress or anxiety that many will experience in the face of isolation from normal social life. Possible loss of family or friends from the virus and impact of the virus on one’s economic wellbeing and access to nutrition will exacerbate these effects.

For many, exercising at home without any equipment and limited space can still be possible. For those whose home life can involve long periods of sitting, there may be options to be more active during the day, for example by stretching, doing housework, climbing stairs or dancing to music. In addition, particularly for those who have internet access, there are many free resources on how to stay active during the pandemic. Physical fitness games, for example, can be appealing to people of all ages and be used in small spaces. Another important aspect of maintain physical fitness is strength training which does not require large spaces but helps maintain muscle strength, which is especially important for older persons or persons with physical disabilities.

The global community has adapted rapidly by creating online content tailored to different people; from free tutorials on social media, to stretching, meditation, yoga and dance classes in which the whole family can participate. Educational institutions are providing online learning resources for students to follow at home.

Many fitness studios are offering reduced rate subscriptions to apps and online video and audio classes of varying lengths that change daily. There are countless live fitness demonstrations available on social media platforms. Many of these classes do not require special equipment and some feature everyday household objects instead of weights.

Such online offerings can serve to increase access to instructors or classes that would otherwise be inaccessible. However, access to such resources is far from universal, as not everyone has access to digital technologies. For individuals in poorer communities and in many developing countries, access to broadband Internet is often problematic or non-existent. The digital divide has thus not only an impact on distance banking, learning or communication, but also on benefitting from accessing virtual sport opportunities. Radio and television programmes that activate people as well as distribution of printed material that encourages physical activity are crucial in bridging the digital divide for many households living in precarious conditions. Young people are particularly affected by social and physical distancing, considering sport is commonly used as a tool to foster cooperation and sportsmanship, promote respectful competition, and learn to manage conflict. Without sport, many young people are losing the support system that such participation provided. Currently some organizations, and schools have begun using virtual training as a method for leagues, coaches and young people to remain engaged in sport activities while remaining in their homes.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The COVID-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have very considerable effects on the sporting world as well as on the physical and mental well-being of people around the world. The following recommendations seek to both support the safe re-opening of sporting events and tournaments following the pandemic, as well as to maximize the benefits that sport and physical activity can bring in the age of COVID-19 and beyond.

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events

1. sporting federations and organizations..

Governments and intergovernmental organizations may provide sports federations, clubs and organizations around the world with guidance related to safety, health, labour and other international standards and protocols that would apply to future sport events and related safe working conditions. This would allow all stakeholders to work cooperatively as a team with the objective to address the current challenges and to facilitate future sports events that are safe and enjoyable for all.

2. Professional sport ecosystem.

The sport ecosystem, comprising of producers, broadcasters, fans, businesses, owners and players among others, need to find new and innovative solutions to mitigate the negative effects of COVID19 on the world of sport. This includes finding ways to engage with fans in order to ensure safe sport events in the future while maintaining the workforce, creating new operating models and venue strategies.

1. Supporting physical activity.

Governments should work collaboratively with health and care services, schools and civil society organizations representing various social groups to support physical activity at home. Enhancing access to online resources to facilitate sport activities where available should be a key goal in order to maintain social distancing. However, low-tech and no-tech solutions must also be sought for those who currently lack access to the internet. Creating a flexible but consistent daily routine including physical exercise every day to help with stress and restlessness is advisable.

2. Research and policy guidance.

The United Nations system, through its sports policy instruments and mechanisms such as the Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport,7 as well as through its research and policy guidance should support Governments and other stakeholders to ensure effective recovery and reorientation of the sports sector and, at the same time, strengthen the use of sports to achieve sustainable development and peace. Scientific research and higher education will also be indispensable pillars to inform and orient future policies.

3. Technical cooperation and capacity development.

Governments, UN entities and other key stakeholders should ensure the provision of capacity development and technical cooperation services to support the development and implementation of national policies and approaches for the best use of sport to advance health and well-being, particularly in the age of COVID-19.

4. Outreach and awareness raising.

Governments, the United Nations and the sporting community, including the sporting education community, should disseminate WHO and other guidance on individual and collective measures to counter the pandemic. Measures must be taken to reach communities that have limited access to the Internet and social media and that can be reached through cascading the sport education pyramid from the national/ministerial level down to the provincial/municipal level, from the national physical education inspector down to the teacher, from the national sport federation down to the clubs. In turn, escalating the pyramid provides for important feedback to identify needs and share specific solutions. Athletes, while deeply affected by the pandemic, remain key influencers to ensure that – especially young – audiences understand risks and respect guidance.

5. Promoting positive social attitudes and behaviour.

Sport education is a powerful means to foster physical fitness, mental well-being, as well as social attitudes and behaviour while populations are locked down. International rights and values based sport education instruments and tools, such as the International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport, the Quality Physical Education Policy package and the Values Education through Sport toolkit remain highly relevant references to ensure that the many online physical activity modules that are being currently deployed comply with gender equality, non-discrimination, safety and quality standards.

Read the full UN DESA policy brief on “The impact of COVID-19 on sport, physical activity and well-being and its effects on social development”.

The UN DESA COVID-19 policy briefs can be found at bit.ly/UNDESACovid .

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Sustainable Development Goals

Effects of the lockdown period on the mental health of elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative review

Open access
Published: 08 June 2022
Volume 18 , pages 1187–1199, ( 2022 )

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You have full access to this open access article

Vittoria Carnevale Pellino 1 , 2 ,
Nicola Lovecchio 3 ,
Mariangela V. Puci 4 ,
Luca Marin 1 , 5 , 6 ,
Alessandro Gatti 1 ,
Agnese Pirazzi 1 ,
Francesca Negri 1 ,
Ottavia E. Ferraro 4 &
Matteo Vandoni 1

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This review aimed to assess the effects of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on mental health to elite athletes. The emotional background influenced their sport career and was examined by questionnaires.

We included original studies that investigated psychological outcomes in elite athletes during COVID-19 lockdown. Sixteen original studies ( n = 4475 participants) were analyzed.

The findings showed that COVID-19 has an impact on elite athletes’ mental health and was linked with stress, anxiety and psychological distress. The magnitude of the impact was associated with athletes’ mood state profile, personality and resilience capacity.

The lockdown period impacted also elite athletes’ mental health and training routines with augmented anxiety but with fewer consequences than the general population thanks to adequate emotion regulation and coping strategies.

Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health in sports: a review

Depressive symptoms among Olympic athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic

The mental health of elite athletes: a narrative systematic review.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

The outbreak of SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) and the ongoing pandemic caused a public health concern all over the world with health, social, and economic negative consequences [ 1 , 2 ]. To limit the spread of the virus, governments were forced to impose lockdown measures with the “stay at home” imperative. Everyday life changed all over the world: social-distancing, mask-wearing, limited travel, leisure activity, and non-essential activities stopped [ 3 ]. These restrictions affected the entire population promoting sedentary behavior and inactive lifestyle [ 4 , 5 ], which led to acute and long-term physical [ 6 ] and mental disorders, such as acute stress disorder, exhaustion, irritability, insomnia, poor concentration, indecisiveness, fear, and anxiety [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. For these reasons, several researchers and studies implemented and provided specific recommendations for general population health [ 2 , 10 ] and fitness [ 11 ] to better cope COVID-19 period. The sports contest was not excluded from the protective measures against pandemic and, at every level, it was affected by an extraordinary period with the closure of training facilities, and the interdiction of training both for amateurs and elite athletes until all sports’ competitions postponement (e.g. Olympic Games) or cancelation [ 7 , 8 ]. Even if the priority remains the limitation of contagion, the imposed restrictions did not allow athletes to follow their training and competitive routines, because they were forced to train at home, on their own, and often with no trainers supervision. For this reason, specific suggestions have also been provided for elite and professional athletes [ 12 ] to maintain health, optimal body composition, specific routine exercise, physical conditioning, to encourage a safe return to training and competitions, and to avoid psychological distress (according to the American Psychology Association dictionary, “a set of painful mental and physical symptoms that are associated with normal fluctuations of mood in most people”) [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].

Previous studies showed that a long-term detraining, of at least eight weeks as a similar effect due to COVID-19 forced to stop, leads to a marked decline in maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), endurance capacity, and muscle strength and power with a reduction of electromyography activity (EMG) that reflects reduced muscle activation [ 17 ]. All these declines in athletes’ physical condition have been shown to significantly increase the risk of injuries, fear of return to competition, and psychological distress [ 18 ]. Moreover, in this last period, many athletes have reported challenges and issues connected to social isolation, like career disruption or uncertainty of contract status, and ambiguity of the qualification process, which could be additional stressors and could increase psychological distress, affecting the training and the performance of the athletes [ 19 , 20 ]. Consequently, the awareness of stress and anxiety outcomes became relevant for sports specialists, coaches, and sports psychologists to help athletes to maintain focus, motivation, coping strategies and find, organize, and plan the best strategies for return to competition without fears.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, an elite athlete encountered a lot stressors during the career [ 21 ], the COVID-19 restrictions seems to have amplified all the stressors with negative consequences on the mental health of athletes. Unfortunately, the present literature does not seem to clarify the possible causes and effects of COVID-19 restrictions on athletes. So, the present narrative review aims to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown influenced the mental health of elite athletes. Specifically, the primary objective of this review is to identifies the common psychological distress and stress responses on elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, our research aims to identify factors, either positive or negative, related to psychological distress in elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Search strategy

The study was conducted up to 24th November 2021 through computerized research in the databases PubMed, Scopus, SportDiscus and Web-of-Science for papers published in English in peer-reviewed journals providing information related to mental health of athletes during COVID-19 lockdown.

The following search terms were used: (coronavirus OR COVID-19 OR lockdown OR isolation) AND (sport competition OR sport participation OR training) AND (elite athletes OR athletes OR collegiate athletes) AND (mental health OR psychological distress) AND (COVID-19 OR elite athlete OR mental health). Finally, the reference lists of the studies were manually checked to identify potentially eligible studies not found by the electronic searches. Two reviewers independently: (a) screened the title and abstract of each reference to determine potentially relevant studies, and copies of the screened documents were obtained; (b) subsequently, reviewed them in detail to identify articles that met the inclusion criteria. Third reviewer solved discrepancies between reviewers in the studies selection.

Study selection criteria

Research articles were included if they fulfilled the following criteria: (1) studies with full-text available and had to investigated mental health in athletes with elite or professional or international/national status older than 18 years old pre and during COVID-19 pandemic; the elite status of the athletes was given to the athletes with at least 5-day per week training and participation into national and international sport-specific competitions; (2) studies had to specify the duration of lockdown period; (3) studies had to assess psychobiological factors through valid and reliable tools/questionnaires or showed full questions and scored. Finally, we excluded narrative reviews, abstracts, editorial or commentaries, letters to the editors and case reports and studies that investigated athletes under quarantine or ongoing COVID-19 infection. Flow chart of included studies is shown in Fig. 1 . All the main findings was synthetized through a narrative approach [ 22 ].

Study selection flow-chart

Descriptive and methodological characteristics of the studies

The characteristics of the included studies were summarized in Table 1 . After the screening, sixteen studies were included in this review; four were carried out in Italy, three in Spain, one in the United States, one in France, one in Portugal, one in Estonian, one in Sweden, one in Iran, one in Australia, one in Poland and one in South Africa. All studies had cross-sectional designs. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all studies’ data were collected online through specific survey platforms ( n = 11), mails or WhatsApp ( n = 2), professional networks ( n = 3). Data collection was conducted between 9th March 2020 and 31st August 2020 during the initial phases of COVID-19 lockdown. All the studies recruited athletes in specific clusters (national and international level, Olympic qualifiers, professionals). Of sixteen studies, eight focused explicitly only on elite athletes, while seven studies were conducted both in amateur and elite athletes and then the subjects' outcomes were analyzed separately. The last one includes athlete affiliate to national federation, coaches and managers. Of sixteen studies, thirteen focused on participants aged 18 or older while three studies reported data also for < 18 years old; this data were excluded from the analysis. In total, 4475 elite athletes were surveyed, where the sample size of each study varied from 57 to 692 participants. All the studies reported gender distribution of the whole sample but only four studies specified gender distribution for elite athletes. In terms of the measured outcomes, fourteen studies used validated questionnaires while two studies used tools developed by authors. Of the sixteen studies that employed standardized measures nine reported reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) for their samples, which was satisfactory from α = 0.66 to α = 0.93.

Mental health outcomes, coping strategies, resilience and athletes’ motivation

As shown in Table 1 , mental health outcomes examined by the studies included depression ( n = 6), anxiety ( n = 4), stress and psychological distress ( n = 5). Depression was investigated through DASS-21 ( n = 2) with non-pathological conditions found, and a specific questionnaire provided by authors ( n = 1) reported that most of 50% of athletes felt depressed. Depression was also investigated through PHQ-9 and GA by two studies. Anxiety was investigated by four studies, two connected to lockdown restrictions and two related to return to sport. Clemente-Suarez et al. [ 23 ] reported higher level of anxiety in Olympic athletes but in line with non-pathological conditions (through STAI short form); Leguizamo et al. [ 24 ] reported greater anxiety (through STAI-T) due to uncertainty of competition calendar. Ruffault et al. [ 25 ] reported higher level of cognitive anxiety in particular in public self-focus. Mehrsafar et al. [ 26 ] showed significant positive correlations between COVID-19 anxiety and somatic competitive anxiety, cognitive competitive anxiety, and competition response. Hakansson et al. [ 27 ] underlined that depression and anxiety were associated with feeling worse during the COVID-19 pandemic and with concern over one’s own sports future while Mehrsafar et al. [ 26 ] showed significant positive correlations between COVID-19 anxiety and somatic competitive anxiety and competition. In general, females showed higher levels of cognitive and physiological anxiety and lower scores of perceived controls. Stress and psychological distress were investigated by six studies. Di Fronso et al. [ 28 ] reported a high level of perceived stress. In this study [ 28 ], females reported higher levels of perceived stress. Furthermore, the higher levels of perceived stress was connected to higher dysfunctional and lower functional states and females reported greater levels of dysfunctional states than males. Different studies [ 24 , 27 , 29 , 30 ] measured the common symptoms related to stress and reported an increased level of stress symptoms especially in female athletes. Coping strategies ( n = 1) and resilience ( n = 1) were also investigated. Leguizamo et al. [ 24 ] reported that athletes often use coping strategies to react to situations. In the lockdown period, even if the stress perception increased, athletes that used coping strategies showed lower consequences. Emotional calming and cognitive structuring were the predominant strategies to cope with lockdown. Mon-Lopez et al. [ 31 ] reported that athletes’ resilience decreased with higher training intensity. Resilience became a positive predictor of perceived effort during training. Also, Szczypińska et al. [ 32 ] highlighted the importance of using adapted coping strategies to reduce stress and improve the mood state with positive reframing instead self-blaming strategy.

Finally, three studies investigated the motivation to continue training ( n = 1) or related to return to sport competition ( n = 2). Pillay et al. [ 33 ] reported that 55% of investigated athletes struggled to keep motivated to the training. Jagim et al. reported that 67% of investigated athletes had a reduction of level of training motivation with also lower training satisfaction. Ruffault et al. [ 25 ] reported that elite athletes had significant higher scores of external regulations of extrinsic motivation to return to sport.

Athletes’ profile mood state and personality

To determine possible repercussions on mental health related to specific athletes’ profile and personality, five studies investigated the mood state profile ( n = 2), athletes’ personality ( n = 1) and perfectionism ( n = 1). Leguizamo et al. [ 24 ] reported an ideal mood profile investigated, in line with the iceberg profile [ 34 ] in which the vigor factor is higher than other factors. These results was also confirmed by Szczypińska et al. [ 32 ] and Mon-Lopez et al. [ 31 ] Clemente-Suarez et al. [ 23 ] showed that a predominant of neuroticism personality in athletes led to a worse perception of confinement with higher impact on performance and training routines. Leguizamo et al. [ 24 ] also reported high level of perfectionism in elite athletes, in line with existing literature that was associated with higher performance [ 35 ].

COVID-19 emotional reactions

To cope with unique situations caused by COVID-19 lockdown, six studies investigated specific event impact on athlete’s emotion ( n = 1), acceptance ( n = 1) and emotion regulation ( n = 2). Di Cagno et al. [ 36 ] reported increased level of hyperarousal activation. In particular, females showed high scores on self-perceived stress as well as in the emotional avoidance-response behavior. Parm et al. [ 30 ] and Clemente-Suarez [ 23 ] reported higher scores of psychological inflexibility that lead to greatest negative feelings. Costa et al. [ 37 ] investigated individual differences in cognitive regulation and found that elite athletes in general had higher levels of “acceptance”, male showed higher levels of “planning” and “blame others” while females showed higher values of “putting things into perspectives” and “rumination”. Mon-Lopez et al. [ 31 ] showed that the athletes’ emotional intelligence impacted on training conditions and capacity to react to specific situations. In particular, the use of emotion became a positive predictor of perceived effort and number of training days.

Moreover, three studies investigated individual perceptions about COVID-19 with no-validated questionnaires. Clemente-Suarez et al. [ 23 ] found that elite athletes had high perception of social alarm, perceived a lack of support from institutions and had repercussions on training routines. Jagim et al. [ 38 ] highlighted a decrease in QoL due to lack of in-person support and social interaction with self-reported overall state of mental well-being approximately at a score of 50 on a scale 0–100. Pillay et al. [ 33 ] reported that 31% of investigated athletes felt unsure to return to sport because they were worried about the spread of virus.

This narrative review aimed to assess the effects of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on the mental health of elite athletes, identifying common psychological repercussions and their correlates. The overall findings of this review showed that the lockdown imposed by COVID-19 pandemic impacted elite athletes’ mental health. Due to the unique situations, many authors reported increased level of stress, anxiety and psychological distress in general population, primary connected to long period of quarantine, lack of social contact and fear of contract the virus. Athletes’ population seems to have reported less impact of these factors than the general population probably thanks to the capacity to react to adverse events and the use of adequate coping strategies [ 25 , 33 ]. The first model used in sports psychology was the Model of Sports Injuries [ 39 , 40 ] that with the similarity in the interruption of activity and the inherent uncertainty of the return to normal sports conditions reproduces a condition comparable to COVID-19 stop for lockdown. This model added other outcomes such as self-efficacy and environmental factors to anxiety and stress factors [ 41 ]. Generally, the authors reported increased level of stress due to the uncertainty of COVID-19 spread, the disarray of calendar competitions with repercussion on physical fitness and training sessions. Even if, augmented levels of stress and anxiety were found by different authors, they did not highlight the presence of any pathological conditions. Leguizamo et al. [ 24 ] showed negative correlations between the use of coping strategies in athletes, mainly on cognitive restructuring and emotional calming, and the emotional states commonly identified as negative, such as depression, stress and anxiety. Clemente-Suarez et al. [ 23 ] confirmed low-to-no impact of confinement on anxiety levels of Olympic athletes thanks to the larger experience of high-performance athletes in coping with competition-related anxiety and the existence of higher cognitive resources. Contradictory, Szczypińska et al. [ 32 ] showed that not all the coping strategies used by the athletes had positive effects on their mental health, in fact they showed that behavioral disengagement and self-blaming had negative effect on the mood of athletes. Additionally, results were found by Ruffault et al. [ 25 ] where the measure of anxiety was contextualized to return to sport. The results showed that athletes with higher levels of anxiety also recorded higher scores of controlled motivations. This is in line with Self-Determination Theory returning to sport to avoid threats or to get external rewards is associated with anticipatory thoughts that lead to cognitive anxiety [ 42 ]. Authors noted that investigated athletes self-reported changed to their training frequency, time spent doing training activities, motivation to train, enjoyment from training, training effort compared to pre-COVID-19 activities. These changes were predominately associated with the cessation of in-person organized team practices, coach–athletes social interaction and impossibilities to use common training facilities as part of the COVID-19 lockdown measures. The self-reported decrease in perceived training intensity could reduce an athlete’s state of physical readiness when a return to sport is possible. The increased risk of future injuries is another major concern related to proper physical training for sport and compete again. A previous study reported that the lack of adequate preparatory strength and conditioning period led to detraining effects and predisposed athletes to a greater risk of injuries during explosive activities [ 43 ]. Nevertheless, athletes who followed training programs during lockdown period (either developed by their staff or by other sources) were less anxious, perceived more control, and were more intrinsically motivated to return to sport after the confinement period. This is in line with theoretical models of return to sport in the context of sport injury [ 44 ]. In fact, continuing to train, keeping in contact with the staff or other athletes, having daily goals and activities, are optimal conditions for being confident in the return to sport with a lower loss in performance and the pleasure of practicing sport and competing again [ 45 ].

As previously reported, the athletes’ profile, personality and ability to regulate emotions could play a fundamental role in the prevention of mental health impairments and to react to adverse events. Elite athletes showed a complex motivation profile, with both high controlled and autonomous regulations. This is in line with a recent analysis of motivational processes in Olympic medalists that highlighted elite athletes’ influence from external factors [ 46 ]. The restrained environment linked with the COVID-19 lockdown could have enhanced this perception of external control such as fear of the loss of financial support and contracts. Many authors [ 24 , 31 , 32 ], highlighted that mood sates profile such as Vigor was the highest, clearly indicating that athletes did not experience a decrease in their “energy perception” during lockdown and the ability to maintain a positive reframing help them to cope with COVID-19 situations. These traits matched with the so-called “Iceberg profile” always associated with high performance in athletes [ 47 ]. In fact, Clemente-Suarez et al. [ 23 ] stated that athletes presented a high perception of social alarm, but the concern about COVID-19 pandemic was medium, probably because of the high control perception and personal care to avoid contagion. Additionally, correlation analysis showed that neuroticism personalities perceived that confinement produced negative impact in the subjective performance with repercussion on training routines and perceived lack of institutional support. The negative emotions associated to this personality trait may cause a poor adaptive behavior during the confinement situation [ 48 ]. On the contrary, openness trait presented higher control and personnel care perceptions, more adaptive behavior to the confinement than the neuroticism ones. In this line, the psychological inflexibility showed to be related with poor adaptive responses to the confinement led to high negative perception of sport performance, training routines and feeling of more loneliness. Psychological inflexibility is a factor that has been related to worse states of health and less contextual adaptability [ 49 ]. For this reason, psychological training has proven to be relevant in elite athletes to maintain a positive mood and more flexible and adequate coping strategies that are fundamental parameters to achieve high sport performance [ 50 , 51 , 52 ].

Studies included in this review reported gender differences in the mental health of elite athletes highlighting the importance of using a gender-based psychological training. In fact, Fiorilli et al. [ 29 ] showed that female athletes had higher levels than males, designed to assess current subjective distress. These results are also confirmed by Parm et al. [ 30 ], which showed that females had higher distress in COVID-19 period than males. Additionally, Costa et al. [ 37 ], found that cognitive emotion regulation strategies showed specific gender differences as previously highlighted [ 53 ], with women reporting to use more “rumination” and “catastrophizing”. The reason of these behaviors could be found in the tendency of women to express their emotions more than men [ 54 ], and this period of social isolation might have been an obstacle to this expressivity. Also, response styles theory assumptions [ 55 ] could explain tendency for women to ruminate when experiencing negative mood or circumstances, whereas men tend to distract themselves. This rumination can, in turn, increase the possibility to remain in a negative mood and perceive the circumstances as impacting mind and body, with increased anxiety [ 56 ]. Women emerged also as being more able to put things into perspective, whereas men used more the cognitive strategy of planning (i.e., to think about what steps to take and how to handle the negative event). These differences are novel in literature, as the CERQ has not yet reached widespread use in the sporting field. Moreover, elite athletes scored higher values in “planning” and “acceptance”, and lower values in “self-blame”, is in line with Ashfar et al. [ 57 ]. Also, elite athletes have emerged as having better strategies to emotionally cope with stressful situations [ 58 ]. Indeed, Di Cagno et al. [ 36 ] reported that women showed higher avoidance levels than males. Contrariwise, male athletes used social contacts to resolve stressful situations such as the sports activity withdrawal. Shuer and Dietrich [ 59 ] found that avoidance could be a psychological defense to actively remove unpleasant thoughts and situations. Athletes are often familiar to the use of dissociative strategies to separate life problems from their performance. This approach, defined as “compartmentalization”, could have masked the presence of the psychological symptoms in female athletes [ 60 ].

We are conscious that this study had some limitations. First, we were able to analyze only sixteen papers of the initial ninety-nine, only those were eligible according to the criteria. However, the results are of possible interest for future lines of study and intervention in the psychological field. Second, this review considered only studies published in English language, such that relevant studies conducted in non-English samples have been omitted. Finally, we did not find relevant information about the Paralympic elite athletes. In fact, in this study, we analyzed papers focused on mental health and psychological distress in athletes during the lockdown period, starting from our results new research should study the best coping strategies for athletes to deal with stressors. COVID-19 consequences remain unclear and the pandemic continues to be a matter of concern for both the public and the scientific community, so our study could be a starting point to include athletes’ mental health evaluation after a COVID-19 diagnosis.

Even if all the studies that we evaluated reported athletes higher perceived stress level, anxiety and psychological distress, the majority of participants were not substantially affected by the lockdown restrictions. The sports practice, in which athletes usually deal with stressful situations, such as competitive events, leads to achieve useful skills to manage anxiety and self-control in daily life. The athletes’ repeated exposure to exercise may have led to a stress response system adaptation and a negative cognitive appraisal. Elite athletes invest more in sport life and are able to better cope with stressful and uncertain situations [ 61 ]. Additionally, anxiety reduction techniques such as breathing exercises for physiological anxiety or mental exposure using imagery for cognitive anxiety may be taught to athletes with high anxiety [ 62 ]. Consequently, they may be able to transfer these skills from sport to the other life domains even during challenging times. Nevertheless, our review highlights the importance for coaches and physicians to keep under attention the level of stress and anxiety in elite athletes exacerbated from COVID-19 pandemic because these stressors can negatively influence the athletes’ performance and life. Sport psychologists and multidisciplinary interventions had to be implemented to early identify negative stressors and to help athletes to cope with these negative events to continue their careers and training in a safety way.

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Carnevale Pellino, V., Lovecchio, N., Puci, M.V. et al. Effects of the lockdown period on the mental health of elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative review. Sport Sci Health 18 , 1187–1199 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-022-00964-7

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The impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity

A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Ding, Yunxia PhD a ; Ding, Song MD b,∗ ; Niu, Jiali MD c

a Sports Industry and Leisure College, Nanjing Sport Institute, Jiangsu, China

b Department of Infection, Jingjiang People's Hospital, the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Jiangsu, China

c Department of Pharmacy, Jingjiang People's Hospital, the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University, Jiangsu, China.

∗Correspondence: Song Ding, No. 28, Zhongzhou Road, Jingjiang, Jiangsu 214500, China (e-mail: [email protected] ).

Abbreviation: COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019.

How to cite this article: Ding Y, Ding S, Niu J. The impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity: a protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicine . 2021;100:35(e27111).

This work was funded by the 2021 Universities "Qing Lan Project" Training Objects of Jiangsu Education Department and Jiangsu Social Science Foundation (20HQ041). The funder had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, writing of the report, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Ethical approval is not required, and the review will be reported in a peer-reviewed journal.

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

All the data pertaining to the present study are willing to share upon reasonable request.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Background:

We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on college students’ physical activity.

Methods:

All cohort studies comparing college students undertaking physical exercise at school before the COVID-19 pandemic and physical exercise at home during the COVID-19 pandemic will be included in this review. We will use index words related to college students, physical exercise, and COVID-19 to perform literature searches in the PubMed, Medline, Embase, and CNKI databases, to include articles indexed as of June 20, 2021, in English and Chinese. Two reviewers will independently select trials for inclusion, assess trial quality, and extract information for each trial. The primary outcomes are exercise frequency, duration, intensity, and associated factors. Based on the Cochrane assessment tool, we will evaluate the risk of bias of the included studies. Revman 5.3 (the Cochrane collaboration, Oxford, UK) will be used for heterogeneity assessment, data synthesis, subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and funnel plot generation.

Result:

We will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity.

Conclusion:

Stronger evidence about the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity will be provided to better guide teaching practice.

Systematic review registration:

PROSPERO CRD42021262390.

1 Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic [1] leading to a global shutdown that closed schools for months. [2,3] In many nations, schools were closed to students, [4] and teachers directed educational activities remotely via digital devices or homeschooling resources. [5] However, in contrast to exercising at school, home exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic was affected by various factors, [6,7] such as limited venues, family sports atmosphere, and incomplete equipment, it was difficult for college students to reach school requirements. [8–11]

To promote college students’ active participation in physical exercise and provide reference for teaching practice, we aim to conduct a meta-analysis of cohort studies to assess the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity.

2.1 Registration

This protocol was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews on July 1 as CRD42021262390. In this paper, we will perform the protocol according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols guidelines. [12,13]

2.2 Inclusion criteria for considering studies

2.2.1 types of studies.

2.2.2 Types of participants

College students, grade 1 to 4.

2.2.3 Types of interventions

The impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity.

2.2.4 Types of outcome assessments

Any available information about the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activities will be assessed. The primary outcomes are exercise frequency, duration, intensity, and associated factors.

2.3 Search strategy

We will use index words related to college students’ physical activity and COVID-19 to perform literature searches in the PubMed, Embase, Medline, and CNKI databases, to include articles indexed as of June 20, 2021, in English and Chinese. The key search terms will be used are [“Exercises” OR “Physical Activity” OR “Activities, Physical” OR “Activity, Physical” OR “Physical Activities” OR “Exercise, Physical” OR “Exercises, Physical” OR “Physical Exercise” OR “Physical Exercises” OR “Acute Exercise” OR “Acute Exercises” OR “Exercise, Acute” OR “Exercises, Acute” OR “Exercise, Isometric” OR “Exercises, Isometric” OR “Isometric Exercises” OR “Isometric Exercise” OR “Exercise, Aerobic” OR “Aerobic Exercise” OR “Aerobic Exercises” OR “Exercises, Aerobic” OR “Exercise Training” OR “Exercise Trainings” OR “Training, Exercise” OR “Trainings, Exercise” AND “2019 novel coronavirus disease” OR “COVID19” OR “COVID-19 pandemic” OR “SARS-CoV-2 infection” OR “COVID-19 virus disease” OR “2019 novel coronavirus infection” OR “2019-nCoV infection” OR “coronavirus disease 2019” OR “coronavirus disease-19” OR “2019-nCoV disease” OR “COVID-19 virus infection”].

2.4 Data collection

2.4.1 selection of studies.

Two reviewers will independently select trials for inclusion. Articles will be excluded if they meet any of the following criteria: the object is not a college student, fewer than 10 students, and studies not comparing college students undertaking physical exercise at school before the COVID-19 pandemic undertaking physical exercise at home during COVID-19 pandemic. The study selection process is illustrated in Figure 1 .

2.4.2 Data and information extraction

Two authors will extract general information independently for each included trial, including the name of the first author, year, country, design, sample size, average age, and sex ratio. The third author will check all the data.

In the same manner, we will extract the data for impact assessments. For each study, we will extract the following information: exercise frequency, duration, intensity, and associated factors. We will resolve the disagreements through discussion.

2.5 Assessment of risk of bias

The review authors will independently assess the quality of the trials included in the review, in accordance with Chapter 8 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Higgins 2011), by allocation concealment (selection bias); blinding (performance bias and detection bias); blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias); blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias); incomplete outcome data (attrition bias); selective reporting (reporting bias); and other bias. The fifth author will check all the data. We will use this information to evaluate quality and resolve disagreements by discussion until a consensus is reached.

2.6 Data analysis

2.6.1 assessment of heterogeneity.

We will use chi-square test and I 2 statistic to assess heterogeneity. If the heterogeneity is within the acceptable range ( P > .10, I 2 < 50%), the fixed effects model shall be used for data analysis; otherwise, the random effects model will be used.

2.6.2 Date synthesis

Two authors will extract information independently for each trial. The third author will check all the data. Review Manager 5.3 (the Cochrane collaboration, Oxford, UK) will be used to assess the risk of bias, heterogeneity, sensitivity, and subgroup analysis. We will calculate a weighted estimate across trials and interpret of the results. Statistical significance will be set at P < .05.

2.6.3 Subgroup analysis

We will perform the following subgroup analysis to explore the possible causes of high heterogeneity: grade (1, 2, 3, and 4), gender (male and female), and different counties.

2.6.4 Sensitivity analysis

Sensitivity analysis will be conducted by excluding trials one by one and observing whether the synthesis result changes significantly. If there are significant changes, we will cautiously make a decision to decide whether to merge them. If there is little change, this indicates that our synthesized result is firm.

2.7 Assessment of publication bias

If more than 10 articles are available for analysis, funnel plots will be generated to assess publication bias. A symmetrical distribution of funnel plot data indicates that there is no publication bias; otherwise, we will analyze the potential reasons for this outcome and provide a reasonable interpretation for asymmetric funnel plots.

2.8 Confidence in cumulative evidence

The Grades of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system will be used to assess the quality of our evidence. [14] According to the grading system, the level of evidence will be rated as high, moderate, low, and very low.

3 Discussion

COVID-19 is an emerging, rapidly evolving situation that leads to global shutdown. [15] Schools were closed for months, and students took online courses at home. [16,17] It was very important to pay attention to the physical and mental health of students and to guide students in strengthening exercises. Teachers encouraged students to perform physical exercise through various methods, such as online physical education, assigning exercise assignments, and cloud competitions. However, home physical exercises rely more on students’ independent practices, and teachers lack effective monitoring. [18] The physical exercise of college students at home may not meet the standards. [19,20]

By conducting a meta-analysis of related cohort studies, we will provide the impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity to better guide teaching practice.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Yunxia Ding, Song Ding, Jiali Niu.

Investigation: Yunxia Ding, Song Ding, Jiali Niu.

Methodology: Yunxia Ding, Song Ding, Jiali Niu.

Software: Yunxia Ding, Jiali Niu.

Supervision: Yunxia Ding, Song Ding, Jiali Niu.

Writing – original draft: Yunxia Ding, Song Ding, Jiali Niu.

Writing – review & editing: Yunxia Ding, Song Ding, Jiali Niu.

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UN/DESA Policy Brief #73: The impact of COVID-19 on sport, physical activity and well-being and its effects on social development

Introduction

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events and the implications for social development

The impact of COVID-19 on physical activity and well-being

Conclusions and Recommendations

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events

1. sporting federations and organizations..

2. Professional sport ecosystem.

1. Supporting physical activity.

2. Research and policy guidance.

3. Technical cooperation and capacity development.

4. Outreach and awareness raising.

5. Promoting positive social attitudes and behaviour.

Authors: Daniela Bas, Melissa Martin, Carol Pollack and Robert Venne, Division for Inclusive Social Development in UN DESA.

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How to Write About the Impact of the Coronavirus in a College Essay

The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no other. Both face unprecedented challenges and questions as they grapple with their respective futures amid the ongoing fallout of the pandemic.

Colleges must examine applicants without the aid of standardized test scores for many -- a factor that prompted many schools to go test-optional for now . Even grades, a significant component of a college application, may be hard to interpret with some high schools adopting pass-fail classes last spring due to the pandemic. Major college admissions factors are suddenly skewed.

"I can't help but think other (admissions) factors are going to matter more," says Ethan Sawyer, founder of the College Essay Guy, a website that offers free and paid essay-writing resources.

College essays and letters of recommendation , Sawyer says, are likely to carry more weight than ever in this admissions cycle. And many essays will likely focus on how the pandemic shaped students' lives throughout an often tumultuous 2020.

[ Read: How to Write a College Essay. ]

But before writing a college essay focused on the coronavirus, students should explore whether it's the best topic for them.

Writing About COVID-19 for a College Application

Much of daily life has been colored by the coronavirus. Virtual learning is the norm at many colleges and high schools, many extracurriculars have vanished and social lives have stalled for students complying with measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"For some young people, the pandemic took away what they envisioned as their senior year," says Robert Alexander, dean of admissions, financial aid and enrollment management at the University of Rochester in New York. "Maybe that's a spot on a varsity athletic team or the lead role in the fall play. And it's OK for them to mourn what should have been and what they feel like they lost, but more important is how are they making the most of the opportunities they do have?"

That question, Alexander says, is what colleges want answered if students choose to address COVID-19 in their college essay.

But the question of whether a student should write about the coronavirus is tricky. The answer depends largely on the student.

"In general, I don't think students should write about COVID-19 in their main personal statement for their application," Robin Miller, master college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college counseling company, wrote in an email.

"Certainly, there may be exceptions to this based on a student's individual experience, but since the personal essay is the main place in the application where the student can really allow their voice to be heard and share insight into who they are as an individual, there are likely many other topics they can choose to write about that are more distinctive and unique than COVID-19," Miller says.

[ Read: What Colleges Look for: 6 Ways to Stand Out. ]

Opinions among admissions experts vary on whether to write about the likely popular topic of the pandemic.

"If your essay communicates something positive, unique, and compelling about you in an interesting and eloquent way, go for it," Carolyn Pippen, principal college admissions counselor at IvyWise, wrote in an email. She adds that students shouldn't be dissuaded from writing about a topic merely because it's common, noting that "topics are bound to repeat, no matter how hard we try to avoid it."

Above all, she urges honesty.

"If your experience within the context of the pandemic has been truly unique, then write about that experience, and the standing out will take care of itself," Pippen says. "If your experience has been generally the same as most other students in your context, then trying to find a unique angle can easily cross the line into exploiting a tragedy, or at least appearing as though you have."

But focusing entirely on the pandemic can limit a student to a single story and narrow who they are in an application, Sawyer says. "There are so many wonderful possibilities for what you can say about yourself outside of your experience within the pandemic."

He notes that passions, strengths, career interests and personal identity are among the multitude of essay topic options available to applicants and encourages them to probe their values to help determine the topic that matters most to them -- and write about it.

That doesn't mean the pandemic experience has to be ignored if applicants feel the need to write about it.

Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays

Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form.

To help students explain how the pandemic affected them, The Common App has added an optional section to address this topic. Applicants have 250 words to describe their pandemic experience and the personal and academic impact of COVID-19.

[ Read: The Common App: Everything You Need to Know. ]

"That's not a trick question, and there's no right or wrong answer," Alexander says. Colleges want to know, he adds, how students navigated the pandemic, how they prioritized their time, what responsibilities they took on and what they learned along the way.

If students can distill all of the above information into 250 words, there's likely no need to write about it in a full-length college essay, experts say. And applicants whose lives were not heavily altered by the pandemic may even choose to skip the optional COVID-19 question.

"This space is best used to discuss hardship and/or significant challenges that the student and/or the student's family experienced as a result of COVID-19 and how they have responded to those difficulties," Miller notes. Using the section to acknowledge a lack of impact, she adds, "could be perceived as trite and lacking insight, despite the good intentions of the applicant."

To guard against this lack of awareness, Sawyer encourages students to tap someone they trust to review their writing , whether it's the 250-word Common App response or the full-length essay.

Experts tend to agree that the short-form approach to this as an essay topic works better, but there are exceptions. And if a student does have a coronavirus story that he or she feels must be told, Alexander encourages the writer to be authentic in the essay.

"My advice for an essay about COVID-19 is the same as my advice about an essay for any topic -- and that is, don't write what you think we want to read or hear," Alexander says. "Write what really changed you and that story that now is yours and yours alone to tell."

Sawyer urges students to ask themselves, "What's the sentence that only I can write?" He also encourages students to remember that the pandemic is only a chapter of their lives and not the whole book.

Miller, who cautions against writing a full-length essay on the coronavirus, says that if students choose to do so they should have a conversation with their high school counselor about whether that's the right move. And if students choose to proceed with COVID-19 as a topic, she says they need to be clear, detailed and insightful about what they learned and how they adapted along the way.

"Approaching the essay in this manner will provide important balance while demonstrating personal growth and vulnerability," Miller says.

Pippen encourages students to remember that they are in an unprecedented time for college admissions.

"It is important to keep in mind with all of these (admission) factors that no colleges have ever had to consider them this way in the selection process, if at all," Pippen says. "They have had very little time to calibrate their evaluations of different application components within their offices, let alone across institutions. This means that colleges will all be handling the admissions process a little bit differently, and their approaches may even evolve over the course of the admissions cycle."

Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of Best Colleges.

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Nepali swimmer duana lama exits in initial round at paris olympics, nepse surges 113 points with two circuit breaks; banking sector gains 9.89%, nepal exported power worth rs 16.93 billion last fiscal year.

Sudur Pashchim

COVID-19: Its impact on life expectancy in Nepal

Yagya b. karki.

NSO has also published life expectancies for the seven provinces using the 2021 census data. According to the NSO, life expectancy is the highest in Karnali Province despite the fact that Karnali is a remote region, and its socio-economic indicators are among the lowest in the country

Period life expectancy, or life expectancy, is a summary measure of current population health. If mortality increases in a population, life expectancy declines. Conversely, if mortality declines, life expectancy increases.

The measure is age-standardised and thus commonly employed for international comparisons of population health. In this article, the author estimates life expectancies of male and female populations using the recently published death data from the 2021 population census of Nepal.

Gold price declines by rs 1,300 per tola, silver follows suit, gold price declines by rs 2,000 per tola .

The 2021 population census enumeration took place for 15 days from November 11 to November 25, 2021. The retrospective death data were collected for 12 months prior to the census. This period was heavily hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reported cumulated death toll due to the pandemic was over 10,000.

In Nepal, compared to the 2011 population census, in absolute terms and proportionately, more deaths were reported in 2021. In 2011, the total number of reported deaths was 129,978, comprising 74,755 male deaths and 55,223 female deaths. In 2021, the number of male deaths reported was 114,946, and the number of female deaths was 83,517, resulting in the total deaths of 198,463 people.

The direct estimate of the Crude Death Rate (CDR) was 6 deaths per 1,000 male population in 2011 while in 2021 the corresponding figure rose to 8. Similarly, the direct CDR was 4 per 1,000 female population in 2011 whereas in 2021 it increased to 6. This resulted in a higher total reported direct estimate of CDR of 7 in 2021 compared to 5 in 2011 for both sexes combined.

Proportionately, higher deaths in 2021 imply that the Nepali life expectancy has declined in 2021. However, a recent publication by the National Statistics Office (NSO), Government of Nepal shows that life expectancy of the Nepali population has increased from 66.6 years in 2011 to 71.3 years in 2021.

Similarly, the NSO reported a life expectancy of 73.8 years for females and 68.2 years for males. This author estimated life expectancies for Nepal after processing the reported 2021 census death data, and accordingly the total life expectancy is 66.9 year for both the sexes combined, while for females it is estimated at 68.1 years and for males 65.6 years. A low life expectancy (68.4 years) in 2021 for Nepal has also been reported by the World Bank.

In view of the fact that the census death data reference period and the COVID-19 pandemic period are the same, and as during the pandemic, the male population was disproportionately affected, it is natural that male life expectancy was more affected than female life expectancy.

The impact of COVID-19 on the life expectancy has been reported for India, the USA and European countries, too.

The NSO estimates of life expectancies are not consistent with the Infant Mortality Rates reported by the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2022, according to which the IMR was 28 per 1,000 live births while the NSO life expectancy implies an IMR less than 18.

NSO has also published life expectancies for the seven provinces using the 2021 census data. According to the NSO, life expectancy is the highest in Karnali Province despite the fact that Karnali is a remote region, and its socio-economic indicators are among the lowest in the country. This author's estimates show that Koshi Province has the lowest life expectancy although after Bagmati Province, Koshi is taken as a prosperous province.

This is probably the effect of soaring COVID-19 infections during the second wave of the coronavirus in Koshi Province. There were also anecdotes during the pandemic that many COVID-19 deaths were not reported. Among the seven provinces, Gandaki has the highest life expectancy of 70.2 years, and the second highest life expectancy of 68.3 years is estimated for Bagmati Province.

As a summary measure of a population's mortality experience, estimates of life expectancy help one compare how different countries and provinces within a country have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.

Compared to India, Nepal experienced much lower mortality reductions during the pandemic as India experienced about two years' reduction in life expectancy. The United States of America and the European nations also experienced about two years' drop in life expectancy.

Life expectancy at birth in Nepal was 66.6 years for both the sexes combined in 2011, and by 2021, this level increased merely by about 0.3 years, reaching 66.9 years. As the death data were from the pandemic period, the life expectancy estimate was low, and if the death data were from the non-pandemic years, the life expectancy would probably be high.

Low life expectancy is also a reflection of low capacity of the health system in providing prompt and efficient health services to the people in times of crisis.

Karki is a demographer and a former member of the National Planning commission

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Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sports industry

Sport is an important enabler of sustainable development and a cost-effective and flexible tool for development goals. International sports organizations such as International Olympic Committee and national or international sports federations play a significant role in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this, they take extensive and fundamental activities in joint with other international organizations such as the United Nations. But the global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus as the most important crisis of the present era had a profound effect on the performance of sports industry and its contribution to sustainable development. This chapter discusses the role of sport in sustainable development and the achievement of its goals through sport, and also discusses the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on how sport works and changes in the actions of sports organizations to help sustainable development during the pandemic.

1. Introduction

The COVID-19 crisis made all convinced of the interdependence of different elements of sustainability—ranging from ecosystem integrity to health, well-being, and subsequent socioeconomic prosperity. The response to the crises needs to be equally all-inclusive, with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) providing a suitable framework. 1

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a collection of 17 interlinked global goals prepared to be a blueprint for guaranteeing a more peaceful and sustainable future for the world’s people. These goals show the roadmap and actions to be taken by all countries to provide a better world for their people.

Many organizations around the world have joined the United Nations Sustainable Development Program and have taken various steps toward fulfillment of the SDGs. Meanwhile, sports organizations have also joined the movement, while benefitting from the unique feature of sports as a valuable asset endeared by various social strata around the globe. The purpose of this chapter is to explain the role of sports in fulfillment of the goals of sustainable development and the actions that sports organizations can take to meet each of the 17 goals of sustainable development. Accordingly, the rest of this chapter deals with the importance of sport in the SDGs, as well as the various programs that sports organizations can implement to fulfill any of the SDGs in the world.

2. Sports and sustainable development

Sports play an important role in sustainable development. Since sports are very popular among the people of the world, it can play an effective role in meeting the global goals of sustainable development. This is a fact that the United Nations has acknowledged to from a long time ago. Therefore the unique potential of sports and its important role in sustainable development are mentioned in the related documents, reports, and guidelines of the United Nations. The Sport for Development and Peace is one of the most important programs of the United Nations following the 2030 Agenda for the SDGs, in which sports are considered an important and effective tool for fulfillment of the goals of sustainable development. The Sport for Development and Peace programs respect and consider the rights of all people to participate in sports and leisure activities. These programs use sports, organized play, and any other physical activity to allow people to participate in sports and physical activity, thus strengthening social ties and cooperation among those groups involved in sports to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. 2

The role of sports in improving people’s lives is so important that the United Nations signed a contract with organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to send its global message of sustainable development through sports and athletes at the Olympics. 3 The Tokyo 2020 Olympics has been the greenest Olympics in world’s sports history. Though the advent of the Corona pandemic has thwarted all the plans and efforts of the Olympic organizers, their programs have not lost their importance. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was planned as a platform wherein the United Nations and other organizations, active in the field of health and well-being, can convey their messages to the international community. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), participated in a news conference in Tokyo. During his speech to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, he emphasized the role of the Olympic Games in uniting the world and igniting the solidarity and determination necessary for ending the pandemic together. He said the world needed the Olympics amid the pandemic “as a celebration of hope.” 4

So, sports are the powerful driving force of the SDGs. Its contribution shows how different organizations, responsible for sustainable development, can get united, work with each other, and use sports for development and peace throughout the world. Sports and development experts believe that sports can best be used to contribute to the SDGs. Sports contributions to some sustainable development goals have had significant effects, while for others the sports have had weaker effect. 2 Table 1 presents the actions that sports can take about each of the sustainable development goals.

SDGs and contribution of sports.

Goals No.	Goals	Contribution of sports
1	End poverty
2	Zero Hunger
3	Healthy lives and well-being
4	Quality education
5	Gender equality
6	Availability of clean water and sanitation
7	Affordable and sustainable energy
8	Economic growth and decent work for all
9	Resilient, sustainable industrialization, infrastructure and innovation
10	Reduce inequality within and among countries
11	Sustainable cities and safe, resilient
12	Sustainable consumption and production patterns
13	Climate action
14	Conserve and sustainably use the marine resources
15	Sustainable use of land
16	Peace, justice, and inclusive institutions
17	Global partnership

3. Effects of COVID-19 in the sports industry

The sudden emergence of the COVID-19 virus and its global outbreak inflicted great financial losses to the sports industry. Clubs were closed, competitions were not held, and sales of clothing and sports equipment decreased significantly. It was a great shock for the sports industry. Every element of sports has been affected, from athletes and clubs, sponsorships to the media coverage. Gradually, with COVID-19 having spread across the globe, the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo were postponed to 2021. 5

Shortly afterward, as scientists became more aware of how coronavirus behaved and controlled it, sports organizations resumed implementing their programs with certain restrictions. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about many changes in the sports industry. Sporting events were held without spectators, which was the case at all sporting events, large and small. The Olympics were held for the first time without the presence of foreign spectators; meanwhile, the Japanese people, worried about the further spread of the disease in their country through the Olympics, marched in the streets and called on the authorities to stop the Olympics. 6 , 7 The organizers of the Olympics endured a lot of financial, human, and energy cost to host the Olympics, yet the 2020 Olympics were not economically viable for the Japanese. 8 The coronavirus changed the Olympic slogan for the first time. The original Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, and Stronger” was changed to “Faster, Higher, and Stronger-Together" at the suggestion of the International Olympic Committee. The slogan emphasized the message of unity and solidarity to encourage participating athletes and the world’s people to work together to defeat the coronavirus and make the world a better place to live. 9

The pandemic also affected the production of sports products. Customers’ tastes in buying sports equipment changed due to the conversion of club sports to sports at home. People became more inclined to use sports equipment at home. At this time, sports clubs were closed, and the purchase of club sports equipment was stopped. Pools were also closed, and people used home pools, and manufacturers of hydrotherapy equipment began to produce small-sized equipment for home use. In this way, the manufacturers of sports equipment, in order not to suffer bankruptcy, changed their products according to the pandemic conditions and the new needs of the people. 10 Most sports manufacturers and retailers also sold their products in online stores, changing sales management practices and customer relationships. 11

Another sports industry sector affected by the global coronavirus outbreak was the sports media, which was confused in the first months of the pandemic due to the closure of all sporting events and did not know what to do in the absence of live sports programs. For this reason, the sports competitions of previous years were repeated on television. Also, reporters did not know what to report or what news to publish. Therefore the pages of newspapers and magazines were devoid of sports news, and most of them focused on information and knowledge about the importance of sports during the pandemic. As a result, sports breakdown left serious negative impact on the performance of sports media. 12

The COVID-19 pandemic had so extensive negative impact on the sports industry that it is impossible to predict to what extent and for how long these effects will last. However, it can be said with certainty that exercise and sports during the coronavirus outbreak have played an important role in developing physical and mental health and maintaining vitality and individual spirit. 13

COVID-19 has affected various sectors of the sports industry, as shown in Fig. 1 . Moreover, each section plays an important role in the development of the sports industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the function of each of these sectors. In the rest of this chapter, the role of sports in contribution to the sustainable development goals and the effects of COVID-19 in the performance of sports organizations to address the 17 goals of sustainable development are discussed.

Sections of sports industry affected by COVID-19. 14

4. Sport and the sustainable development goals in pandemic era

As mentioned earlier, the sports industry can contribute to materialization of the SDGs. For this, it is necessary to discuss each sustainable development goal about how sports can be effective, especially in the pandemic era, which affected all sectors of sports industries. In the following, the role of sports in achieving each of the sustainable development goals and the COVID-19 pandemic intervention on it are discussed.

4.1. Goal 1: Sports can help end poverty

Sports can have a positive impact on international development and combating poverty. Everyone has the right to participate in sports activities, regardless of any sociological characteristics or physical ability. Also, large international sporting events can reduce poverty because such events can be a boon for the area’s commerce and lessening poverty. 15 So, sport is a productive industry 16 that can help people and their local economy improve through the employment of unemployed people.

For this, sports industries consider people of all races and gender to be able to have a better life with a suitable income. COVID-19 and its global outbreak had a serious impact on the social and employment’s economic situation. In the pandemic era, organizations reacted differently to improve the situation. Many reduced salary of their staff. So, some of the staff preferred to continue working with less payment or temporarily leave the work. Other organizations forced their staff to leave or be redeployed to other departments. 17 So, the pandemic changed the role of sports in combatting poverty because this time, poverty was generated in sports and now it was time to make new decisions to tackle the new problem. To solve the employees’ financial problems, organizations started to use financial support on part of government. Later, gradually, sports administrations decided to hold sports events without any spectators in the stadiums, but they could buy tickets to watch the games through internet media and this way financial problems of sports clubs and their staffs could be solved. Also, organizations and athletes began to help poor people by charity contributions such as food distribution, helping the disabled in quarantine, fund-raising, donations, accompanying people in problems, and providing spiritual assistance to the community through social networks. So, athletes and sports organizations helped people to have better control over their lives. 3

4.2. Goal 2: Role of sports in ending hunger

Elimination of hunger and malnutrition and ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for all is essential. Enabling people to feed themselves properly gives them the means to be healthy and to prosper in society. This requires implementing sustainable goals and setting up resilient agricultural production systems that generate sufficient income to local people while imparting basic nutritional knowledge. Nutrition plays a key role in sports performance and is an integral part of all sports training. Sports provides an ideal platform for raising public awareness, from an early age, of the link between health, nutrition, and sports, and the key principles of a healthy and balanced diet. Sports events also frequently spotlight local areas, producers, and products, thus offering many opportunities to promote local agricultural production. 18 During the pandemic, many people lost their job and had no income to manage their family economy. So, some sports clubs and some elite athletes started to feed the hungry or help poor people financially. Kevin, the love of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, and others donated a considerable amount of money for those who had suffered from the pandemic. Also, some athletes began feeding the hungry people. For example, Steph Curry and his wife Ayesha donated to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and Feeding America to help ensure kids will not have to worry about where their next meal will come from. 19 Alireza Khadem, the former Iranian wrestler, prepared lots of food packages and took them to the poor people who were not in a suitable situation. 20

4.3. Goal 3: Healthy lives, well-being, and sports

Physical activity is one of the most important tools for a healthy life, while inactivity is one of the greatest risk factors for global mortality. 21 New data suggests that inactivity drives 1 in 14 deaths globally. In other words, evidence shows that inactivity drives up to 8% of noncommunicable diseases and mortality in the world. 22 Also, there is evidence that shows a significant relationship between physical inactivity-related mortality and countries’ income. In other words, physical inactivity is responsible for a substantial economic burden. Accordingly, the global burden, associated with physical inactivity, is substantial. The relative burden is greatest in high-income countries; however, the greatest number of people (absolute burden), affected by physical inactivity, live in the middle-income countries given the size of their populations. 23 High-income countries bear a larger proportion of economic burden (80·8% of healthcare costs and 60·4% of indirect costs), whereas the low- and middle-income countries endure a larger proportion of the disease burden (75·0% of DALYs). 24

Policies that can encourage growing participation in sports and active recreation can reduce physical inactivity, while contributing to prevention of diseases and supporting realization of the SDGs. 25 Results of wide-scale research showed that sports for young people could lead to higher self-esteem, further empowering them to control stress, increased academic performance, and better family relationships. 26 These are protective factors or assets that can be potentially developed through sports and help prevent a range of problems. However, we should not forget that sports can itself lead to antisocial behaviors, including violence and hooliganism, drug abuse, cheating, and alcoholism. 27 Some athletes turn to drugs, including alcohol, to relieve stress and feel good. 28 Using drugs to improve performance in sports may lead to deprivation of an athlete from participation in a sport event. Drugs usage not only adversely affects health of the sportspeople but also harms reputation of the sports and sets a negative evidence to be considered by others. Sporting authorities have banned “performance-enhancing drugs” in sports. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) “Prohibited List” and the authorities that are in charge of ensuring its observation aim to guarantee integrity of sports and ensure clean and fair competition. 29

The COVID-19 outbreak reduced drug testing in sports. In March, both the UK Anti-doping (UKAD) and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced a reduction in their testing programs. 30 Creative thinking, such as in-home self-drug testing by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, was controversial. 31 Athletes were required to complete their normal whereabouts, while a doping control officer connected via videoconference during a prescribed period. So, athletes provided their urine and blood samples at home while the doping control officer watched them virtually. Athletes also were responsible for packaging and sending their samples to the antidoping laboratory. 32 This has led many athletes to protest the new method of doping testing and saying: The reduction of drug testing during the coronavirus pandemic was a “let-down,” “frustrating,” and “disheartening” job. 30

4.4. Goal 4: Quality education and sports

Good quality education provides all learners with the capabilities to become economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods, respect peaceful and democratic societies, and enhance individual well-being. 33 Access to inclusive and sustainable education enables people to escape poverty, deepens our knowledge of the world around us, and provides better opportunities for all, particularly girls. Quality education is a right for everyone in the world, and Goal 4 emphasizes it. Inclusive sports activities have long been used to promote education. Everyone, especially children, needs daily physical activity. They can reduce their anxiety and stress, improve their fitness and self-confidence and self-esteem, and get a better lifestyle through using sports and physical activities. Also, sports can improve the quality of social communication. Thus sport is an important part of schools’ curriculums. Results of various researches showed a linear relationship between physical activities and academic performance. 34 , 35 , 36 In other words, physical activities improve academic performance. It positively affects attention, concentration, and behaviors. 37 The COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented global shutdown of schools for months. In many nations, schools were closed to students, and teachers directed educational activities remotely via digital devices or via the homeschooling resources. Also, the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in the cancelation of all organized after-school sporting activities. 38

In the universities, COVID-19 had serious effects on all disciplines of sports education. Including sports coaching, class activities, students interaction with each other and also with their professors, sports and physical education activities, laboratory and clinical efforts. Despite the negative effects of a pandemic on sports education, some studies showed that most students had a good quality of life and high physical activity even with restricted education through online teaching and learning activities during the pandemic. 39 Even some were satisfied with the measures taken by the universities. However, some negative aspects were reported as lack of adequate infrastructure for some students, less effective teacher-student communication and interaction, the impossibility of performing practical applications, lack of socialization, lack of learning motivation, less objective examination, and the possibility of physical and mental health degradation. 40 Restricted education in the pandemic era created a “Knowledge gap” with the exchange of information between industry and education. The experts could not interact with students and discuss educational theories in practice, which could affect their future career. 41 Some experts believe that sports education in the postpandemic era will change, and it will most likely shift to more online education like every other academic discipline and using sports as an education tool will be an essential part of physical education. The sports industry will suffer, and this will result in a decreased demand for sports professionals. Those sports educators who are quick to adapt and have mastered the true online education are better positioned than their competitors. 41 , 42

4.5. Goal 5: Sport and gender equality

In recent years, gender justice and women’s empowerment in sports have received much attention. This is an interesting paradox because even though many cases of gender inequality are observed in sports, sports play an important role in creating gender equality and women’s empowerment. The value of using sports-based approaches to empower women and girls is an important focus across many Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) initiatives in the Commonwealth. As mentioned before, there is increasing recognition and important critique of existing inequality and gender-based discrimination in sports. Attention to this dichotomy will contribute to the Commonwealth’s consultation process that highlighted the importance of intensifying efforts to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in all sporting contexts, including the SDP programs and projects. It was argued that it is not enough to consider isolated gender issues only to make these advances. Rather, stakeholders across sports and the SDP must take a mainstreaming approach and make gender equality inherent in all the policy-making and programming, while stepping up efforts to reduce gender-based discrimination. 43

Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has had more negative effects on women’s sports than men’s. 44 , 45 The impacts of COVID-19 on girls and women in the sports field can be evidenced in different areas, such as leadership, gender-based violence, economic opportunities, participation, and representation in the media. 44

During the pandemic era, women were less present in the decision-making position for sports, and therefore women were less used in sports leadership. Women lost their jobs in sports and faced wage cuts or reductions more than men, and as a result, the economic situation of women in sports worsened compared to men. Even when it was decided to hold sporting events again, the women’s sporting events were absent in the sports arena, and as a result, the media coverage of women’s sports during the pandemic was significantly lower than that of men, and this had adverse effects on women’s sports revenue. 46

Women athletes in Islamic countries were in a more difficult situation during the pandemic. Because of the religious restrictions, these athletes usually had little media coverage, and during the pandemic, their competitions were closed and removed from many media reports. 47

In the postpandemic era, it seems that the sports events program will continue to be in favor of men’s sports, and women’s sports events will have a tiny share in the programs. This will also harm women’s sports sponsorship, and because media coverage will focus more on men’s sports events in the future, sponsors will not be inclined to support women’s sports. For this reason, it is necessary to pay special attention to women’s sports in planning in the postpandemic era. 48 , 49

4.6. Goal 6: Role of sports on availability of clean water and sanitation

Poor water supply is the reason for many people’s death throughout the world. Therefore access to clean water is a vital need that the Goal 6 emphasizes. Access to clean water is such an important issue in sports that many sports celebrities promote it, and also it is a major challenge in the sports world, particularly for sports events organizers. 50 For instance, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has joined the French Swimming Federation (FFN), the UNICEF, France, and thousands of people across the country to celebrate La Nuit de l’Eau (Night of Water), for improved access to swimming for all as a key legacy of its bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Le Nuit de l’Eau is an annual charity and sports event in France that, since 2008, has raised awareness on the importance of water as a vital resource and raised money to support the UNICEF’s safe access to drinking water programs for children around the world. 51

Sport can be an educational tool for managing water consumption considering the importance of using clean water. This important message can be conveyed to the community through sporting events, athletes, and various sports programs. For instance, the Football for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (F4WASH) program in Kenya and Netherland 52 contributes to school children’s improved access to water and sanitation. It thus provides a combination of hygiene education, safe water, and sanitation facilities, which give school children essential WASH services and an opportunity to nurture skills that they are likely to maintain as adults. They also use media in public education. In the Netherlands, water and sanitation facilities are installed at primary schools, and football coaches educate the children about using the facilities. 52

Water use efficiency can be increased in sports facilities. In addition to the educational role of sports, as mentioned earlier, sports facilities can effectively manage water consumption and thus show the community that sports are not only a good educational tool for managing water resources and their proper use, but also being at the forefront of saving and managing water consumption. 53

In some parts of the world, drought and water shortages are important issues of the future. For this reason, managing water consumption in sports venues, including the swimming pools, can be effective in preventing excessive consumption and optimal use of water. The results of Keshkar et al. 54 research showed that water pools in Tehran need to use water recycling systems, upgrade pool water technical systems, and provide general training on how to use water properly by users to manage water consumption better. 54 This example shows that sports venues can play an important role in managing water consumption. In this regard, some experts believe that irrigation is not just a matter related to water use at stadiums. Other sections like sinks, toilets, urinals, and running water for purposes of cleaning and cooking should be considered as the areas in which officials can consider optimal water conservation and management. Water is one of the main exigencies of sports teams to operate. For instance, in hockey, you need about 12,500 gal of water to make the ice. 55 , 56 Therefore, to effectively manage water consumption in sports venues, officials need to identify all forms of water consumption.

It seems that the outbreak of COVID-19 and the closure of sports and clubs have had a positive effect on water consumption because the absence of fans and spectators in sports venues reduced the amount of water consumption (e.g., waster used in toilets and restaurants, and for drinking, cleaning, and washing). 53

4.7. Goal 7: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all

Access to energy for all is an essential element of sustainable development and constitutes one of the greatest challenges facing the world currently. The goal 7 highlights the need for universal access to clean and renewable energy to meet sustainable goals, guarantee inclusive communities, and combat climatic change. 2

Sport and sports-based educational programs can support the initiatives that aim to ensure access to clean energy and promote energy efficiency. Sports facilities and events such as major international sports events can contribute to meeting the targets of generating renewable energy, ensuring energy efficiency, gaining access to the clean energy, and tackling climate change. Sustainable and inclusive sports infrastructure can promote organizational models that adopt clean and sustainable energy. 37

The company Winwin Afrique has been tasked by the Côte d’Ivoire authorities to build a social and economic ecosystem through local sports centers. The aim is to encourage participation in sports and to use sports as a tool for development. The result is the AGORA program. The AGORA program, under which 91 complexes across Côte d’Ivoire are being built, is part of the country’s 2016–2020 National Sports Policy, which aims to increase participation in sports in the country. The goals of this program include 57 :

• Promote participation in grassroots sports.
• Ensure that the population of Côte d’Ivoire lives within 3 km of a sports facility.
• Raise awareness among local people about the issues related to sustainable development (health, social innovation, and environmental protection).
• Stimulate the local economic fabric and create long-term local employment.
• Encourage the development of environmentally friendly facilities. 57

Surprisingly, sports venues have been the pioneers in the promotion of sustainability. Many sports venues have jumped on the sustainability bandwagon to construct or renovate their structure in a race to minimize their carbon footprint, preserve their green legacy, and take the lead in innovation. The Amsterdam Arena is powered by more than 4200 solar panels and one wind turbine. The main building comprises an impressive energy-generating escalator. In November 2018, the Mercedes-Benz became the first professional sports stadium to receive a platinum Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certificate. Golden 1 Center, the home of the Sacramento Kings, was awarded the world’s greenest and most technologically advanced sports and entertainment facility for 2017. Qatar’s organizers for the 2022 football World Cup have pledged that all 12 venues will be zero-carbon emitting as an obligatory requirement from FIFA to deliver a zero-carbon tournament. 58 While many sports venues around the world are striving for sustainable development, some countries, including Iran, are not using renewable energy systems due to the economic hardships caused by global sanctions and some cultural and educational problems. 59

Sport depends on the environment. This relationship is most obvious when the natural world is playing, and many of those sports see their playing conditions change. Winter sports need technology to recreate the playing surface, and indoor sports facilities require ventilation and lighting, which result in greenhouse gases. Therefore all sports activities have an impact on the environment. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, some sports organizations tried to meet the sustainable development goals in their initiatives. After COVID-19, the SDGs’ values can be fully promoted in a healthier environment. 60

Many researches showed that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a reduction of energy usage in sports venues. Chihib et al. 61 showed in their study on energy consumption in campus facilities that the situation of closing the campus facilities during the COVID-19 outbreak influenced the overall energy consumption of the campus. All facilities decreased their consumption value, and the majority of the facilities had a higher relative standard deviation in 2020 than in 2019. In their study, after analyzing the patterns and conducting the inventory in the university facilities, energy-saving measures such as switching off water heating systems in sports facilities for the swimming pool and showers and unplugging all the computers and other unused appliances such as vending machines when the university locations are inoperative (confinement, summer break) could have an important impact on energy savings in the future. 61

4.8. Goal 8: Sport and economic growth

Sustained and inclusive economic growth is a prerequisite for sustainable development, which can contribute to improvement of public livelihoods worldwide. Economic growth can lead to new and better employment opportunities and provide greater economic security for all. Moreover, rapid growth, especially among the least developed and other developing countries, can help them reduce the wage gap relative to developed countries, thereby diminishing glaring inequalities between the rich and the poor. 62

Sport is a driving force for the economy. The global growth of the sports industry and its relationship with other organizations will create new jobs. Sports and sporting events are very popular among the people of the world, and for this reason, hosting sporting events activates many nonsports organizations at the national or global level. Hotels, travel agencies, water, land and air transportation, leisure and entertainment centers, health centers, and sports organizations are involved in hosting sporting events. Hosting international sports events such as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup, or the Super Bowl is the reason for significant economic development in countries. Hosting sports events could secure foreign capital inflows, generate employment, and make people want to spend money. 63 Hosting sports events promotes sports tourism, global media communication, national and global marketing, healthcare services which each, in turn, creates new jobs nationally and internationally. If these activities adopt sustainable and inclusive measures, they can contribute to economic, social, and environmental development. 64

In 2019, 1.37 million people were engaged in the field of sports in the EU-27. Regarding gender balance, men (54%) outnumbered women, which aligned with the one observed in total employment. The share of young people aged 15–29 was 35%—twice the share observed in overall employment, while the 30–64 age group accounted for 63%. In the EU-27, the number of people in sports employment grew by almost 200,000 more compared to 2014, equivalent to an overall increase of 17%. 65

COVID-19 pandemic harmed employment in the sports industry. European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE) analyzed the EU-28 sports employment data for the first two quarters of 2020. Across the first two quarters of 2020, total sports employment in the EU-28 fell by 3.3%. By the end of Q2 of 2020, there were 9.6% fewer females and 17% fewer young people 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 sports workers than at the end of 2019. The female and young sports workforce appears to have been much harder hit by COVID-19 in the first half of 2020. 66 During the pandemic, many sports organizations stopped hiring new staff. Others fired employees or hired them part-time or without pay, all of which harmed the employees’ financial situation. 16 , 67

COVID-19 has impacted the future of sports careers. So, some jobs will be accompanied by many changes. Hosting sports events will require compliance with health protocols, which will indicate a change in the status of jobs related to the events. Some jobs will be held using the internet and cyberspace, and some services will be restricted. In such a situation, sports organizations should be careful about employees’ and athletes’ health and economic status. Special insurances should be provided for them with proper support, and they should also pay attention to improving the economic situation of organizations. In the future, the SDGs’ implementation and observation of international human rights standards should be part of building, planning, and running mega-sporting events. 68

4.9. Goal 9: The role of sports in achieving sustainable and resilient industrialization, infrastructure, and innovation

Investment in sustainable and resilient industrialization, infrastructure, and innovation are essential to achieve the SDGs. 69 Sustainable industrialization refers to the transformation toward an industrialized economy that can help to create wealth, social development, and environmental sustainability. 70

Infrastructure such as the supply of drinking water and electricity, the disposal and treatment of wastewater, the mobility of people and goods, and the provision of information and communication technologies 71 represents the backbone of our economies. It powers our machines, creates networks that connect people, helps to transport goods, and enables services such as trade, healthcare, and education. In short, infrastructure largely determines our livelihoods today and in the future; it is key for safeguarding our environment and represents the seams of our societal fabric. These are the reasons that infrastructure also lies at the core of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 72

Resilience, as another important concept in Goal 9, in broad terms, is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Building resilience is crucial for organizations worldwide because they will always face challenges, big and small. 73

The contribution of sport to the achievement of Goal 9 include: connecting with other sectors to grow the scale of the sports industry, organizing sports events regarding the local and regional business income, using labor standards for goods production, employing vulnerable groups, creating jobs and facilitating entrepreneurship, motivating community mobilization for economic growth, developing sports tourism, and encouraging volunteers. 74

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the sports’ contribution to achieving Goal 9. Directions from public health organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered the sports sector, prompting many sports decision-makers to reconsider what their organization does and how they do it. Although the full scope of the short- and long-term impacts is yet to be seen, some organizations have not survived. Others have used this period to adapt their operations, develop, and incorporate new ideas. To adapt themselves to crises, sports organizations need to undergo a dynamic process of learning, modification, and responsive decision-making to effectively respond to a changing and unpredictable environment. 75 At the beginning of the pandemic, sports organizations were forced to increase organizational resilience to prevent damage. They resisted pandemic threats by closing clubs and then hosting sporting events in a limited way. Sports organizations changed the process of providing sports services using digital media and in accordance with the environmental situation. 76

Ghahfarokhi et al. 77 in their study on evaluating the challenges of sports businesses in the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, and introducing their resilience solutions, identified 11 challenges in two categories of “supply-side challenges” and “demand-side challenges.” Also, 94 sports business resilience strategies for Corona and post-Corona eras were identified in four categories: “Marketing Mix Management,” “Process Management,” “Organizational Resource Management,” and “Strategic Action Management.” These operational strategies can save sports businesses from the risk of bankruptcy and exclusion from the sports ecosystem, while strengthening these firms to show growing resilience in the face of such crises in the future. 77

4.10. Goal 10: Sport and inequality elimination

Many people face discrimination because of their gender, disability, or ethnicity. Sports can promote equality. Sport can also facilitate inclusion of persons with disabilities and vulnerable persons and the empowerment of women and girls. 78

The pandemic negatively affected the lives of vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly, women, religious, ethnic and racial minorities, refugees and the homeless, the poor or the bankrupt, who suffered the greatest economic, social, and health damage during the pandemic era. Some damages include economic inequality, lack of equitable access to healthcare and sanitation services, and unequal access to safe working conditions and decent housing. In their research, Shur et al. 79 showed that COVID-19 affected older adults’ health seriously. The elderly, those with chronic disease and lower socioeconomic groups, were disproportionately affected by restriction of movement, further widening the physical activity health inequality. 79 Also, COVID-19 restrictions have placed many different stresses and strains on the lives of people with disabilities. Social loneliness and social isolation had a significant impact on the health and well-being of every individual, especially for people with disabilities. 80

Professional athletes and sports organizations can use their voices to raise awareness regarding the need to overcome the inequalities both demonstrated and exacerbated by COVID-19 and the types of measures that will need to be taken to do so. 68

Sports in media can remove gender inequality by encouraging girls to participate in sports that boys traditionally play. Colombia instituted a quota rule that dictated that a certain number of football team members had to be girls, and the first goal had to be scored by a girl. This program educated girls on their capability and right to play any sports. 14

4.11. Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Every year, millions of people migrate to urban areas in search of a better life. By 2050 two-thirds of humanity—equal to 6.5 billion people—will be urban. According to evidence, more than 90% of all COVID-19 cases have occurred in cities, for example, highlighting some of the difficulties of living in densely populated areas. 81

Sport offers multiple solutions, helping make cities and human settlements more equal, resilient, and sustainable. Besides health and physical activity, sports generate momentum for more green spaces, athletic facilities, jobs, and economic growth. 82

COVID-19 highlighted the role of sports and exercise in promoting community health. More interestingly, during the pandemic and staying in quarantine, it became possible for everyone to exercise through virtual media, regardless of age or gender, at home. For example, sports trainers made it possible for all family members to exercise using virtual sports classes. Also, sports equipment that could be used at home, such as dumbbells, stationary bikes, treadmills, and fitness equipment, were purchased for the family during the pandemic and could be used by all family members. So, participation in sports was provided equally to all family members. The pandemic caused people to take advantage of the antiinequality capacities of sports and use exercise for their health and family members. 83 , 84

Sport has the potential to create public sports spaces in cities without discrimination. In public sports spaces in many cities worldwide, sports equipment and suitable space for the elderly, children, and the disabled and other social groups have been designed and built. This feature of sports helps to achieve the SDGs to create sustainable cities and communities. 85

4.12. Goal 12: Responsible production and consumption

Sport can affect people’s attitudes toward environmental protection and take the necessary measures to achieve the SDGs. Sports events are the best opportunity to show the importance of the environment and the use of green products, and the implementation of green management in front of the eyes of spectators who are either present at sports venues or watch it through the mass media. 86

Sport can influence the behavior of people in society to achieve the goals of sustainable development. One of the most important problems in the world is the overuse of plastic. This substance is widely used in sports. Plastic is used in almost all sports equipment, from the floor of gyms to sports equipment and clothing, and finally containers and bottles of drinks and the cases of food for athletes. Usually, after sports events, venues are full of bottles or plastic bags. Therefore the sports itself pollute the environment with plastic. On the other hand, benefiting from green management, applying green products in sports venues, and recycling plastics that are used in stadiums will allow the sports to move toward meeting sustainable development goals. 87

The Clean Seas Campaign, launched by the United Nations Environment Program in 2017, aims to engage governments, the general public, civil society, and the private sector in the fight against marine litter by addressing the root causes of the problem. The IOC is a member of Clean Seas alongside many sporting bodies and sponsors. Table 2 presents some actions taken in connection with this project. 88

The action of the clean sea campaign.

Process	Definition
Refuse	Stop using single-use plastic
Reduce	If plastic is necessary, find ways to use less
Reuse	Switch single-use items to reusable versions
Replace	Switch to plastic-free alternatives or select plastics that are recycled or easily recyclable
Recycle	Design your event to ensure that any plastic used gets recycled

According to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizers’ announcement, enough plastic was collected to create recyclable podiums. It collected 24.5 tons of used plastic and around 400,000 laundry detergent bottles for conducting the eco-friendly games. Major retailers and 113 schools from across Japan and Tokyo 2020 and Olympic Games sponsoring P&G Group helped the organizers make the initiative a success. The materials were collected over 9 months, and the campaign reached its goal in March 2020, the same month that the games were postponed to next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 89

The outbreak of the COVID-19, resulting in the cessation of competitions or the restriction of spectators in stadiums, has reduced the consumption of plastic containers such as single-use water bottles in stadiums. However, on the other hand, the cessation of many trade relations between companies around the world has reduced the supply chain of raw materials for sports equipment that are made from recycled plastic materials. 90

4.13. Goal 13: Sport and climate action

Climate change is one of the most important problems and the threat of the present century, which, if not addressed, will have adverse consequences for human life. 91

COVID-19 and climate change both lead to global disruption that transcends borders and threatens the lives of millions of people and also are risk multipliers that exacerbate inequalities by disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable, each in its way. COVID-19 and climate change pose health threats of global magnitude. 92

More than 50 million people were doubly hit in 2020 by climate-related disasters (floods, droughts, and storms) and by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 and related quarantine worsened food insecurity and added another layer of risk to evacuation, recovery, and relief operations related to high-impact events. When disasters (storms, floods, and earthquakes) happened in different parts of the world in 2020, response and recovery operations were hampered, leading to delays in providing equipment and assistance. 93

Athletes and sports organizations have an important role to play in the general response to climate change and the damage it causes. For example, in 2009, the Athlete for Earth Campaign was launched by the Earth Day Network, which featured many well-known professional athletes and Olympians. The campaign aimed to build solidarity between the people, sports organizations, and the environmental movement to counter destructive acts against the environment and natural resources. 94

Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a primary driver of climate change and present one of the world’s most pressing challenges. This link between global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations—especially CO 2 —has been true throughout the Earth’s history. 95

Based on a research conducted in 2020 on the greenhouse gas emissions, the global average temperatures have increased by more than 1°C since preindustrial times, and the concentration of CO 2 emissions has been reduced by almost 40%, compared to 2019. 96 However, during the pandemic, CO 2 emissions have declined by 25%, equal to 100 million tons of CO 2 emissions. 97

Sports events constitute the ultimate product of the sports industry, and they are characterized by a large number of participants that attend or people who work for the event. 98 , 99 The massive production and overconsumption of sports products and services depend highly on thousands of sports events hosted annually across the world. 100 , 101 The main products of sports events include, but are not limited to, the merchandise of sporting goods and services, their delivery practices to facilitate sports consumption, and the implementation and practice of sports events. 99 Also, people who travel for sports events usually consume sporting goods and services in their daily lives. Consequently, these practices contribute to the vast majority of CO 2 emissions.

Moreover, the quantity of CO 2 emissions through sports production and consumption is associated with the type of sports events. For instance, the type of sports events that has the largest impact on the natural environment includes mega-scale sports events, such as the Olympics Games, the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the collegiate football. 99 During such mega-scale sports events, spectators use different modes of transportation such as Single-Occupant Vehicles (SOV) and carpooling practices (e.g., traveling with family or friends). 102

Given the outcome of COVID-19 restrictions toward the sports events, the limited transportation practices of sports teams and spectators, and the reduced functioning of sports facilities, it is vital to explore the CO 2 emissions that have been avoided during the COVID-19 crisis. 103

Accordingly, in 2019, 278 million people attended sports events. 104 In 2020 the Statista forecast with the adjusted impact of COVID-19 predicted an average of 114 million people, which represents more than a 50% cut in attendance. Therefore, by calculating the annual impact of traveling behaviors in sports events, in 2019 spectators were responsible for 2.5 billion tons of CO 2 emissions, compared to the expected 912 million tons of CO 2 emissions in 2020. The statistics illustrate that more than 1.5 billion tons of CO 2 emissions will be avoided due to the controlled transportation variable. 104 Based on the most recent evidence, on average, industrial and human-induced practices emit 36 billion tons of CO 2 emissions in the atmosphere per year. 95 If we calculate that 2.5 billion tons of CO 2 are emitted by the spectators’ transportation only during sports events, the sports industry might significantly impact the CO 2 emitted annually. Essentially, the sports industry, particularly the traveling behaviors of sports stakeholders, has a massive effect on the natural environment. 103

4.14. Goal 14: Sports role in conserve and sustainably use the marine resources

Ocean acidification, illegal fishing and overfishing, and marine and water pollution are currently putting our marine and water ecosystems at risk. 50

The role of sports to unite people in protecting our planet’s biodiversity and in the fight against climate change could be a genuine game-changer. Why are sports beginning to adopt this cause as their own? It can be because of the natural fit between sports and the environment; Athletes needing clean air to train in, snow to ski on, reasonable temperature conditions to run or play in, and going forward. Commercial aspects of sports are likely to be more affected by stoppages in major tournaments because of adverse weather or unacceptable conditions. 105

Numerous sports activities depend on the conservation of coastal, marine, and water-related ecosystems. The sports world is committed to addressing this challenge. Participation in sports, particularly water sports, enables us to learn about these ecosystems and the importance of conserving them. Furthermore, the sports industry, which involves athletes, event organizers, and companies, is developing innovative solutions to preserve the ecosystems. 50

The COVID-19 crisis and its consequences on aquatic sports are considerable. The Swimming, Diving and Water Polo Federation of Iran president said: “The outbreak of COVID-19 has greatly damaged the country’s sports, especially water sports.” He declared that aquatic sports in Iran had suffered the most from the COVID-19. 106 The COVID-19 crisis and its consequences for the swimming community have created a myriad of challenges for swimmers worldwide, including maintaining their fitness level and preparing to return optimally and safely to pool training and competitions. Several significant decisions were made to postpone or cancel major swimming events by FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation). Swimmers were no longer allowed to continue their usual training in swimming pools and were confined to their homes. 107 Wendtlandt et al. 108 in a study on the Effects of Sports Activities and Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors on Subjective Well-Being before and during COVID-19 showed that nature-based and nature-neutral sports activities were significantly decreased during the first COVID-19 lockdown, while environmentally sustainable behaviors were increased. The regression analyses revealed that nature-based and nature-neutral sports activities and ecological consumption significantly added to individuals’ subjective well-being in the pre- and during COVID-19 period. A decrease in nature-based and nature-neutral sports activities significantly predicted a decrease in individuals’ subjective well-being. 108

Anyway, though water sports may encourage people to take care of the environment on the other side, some water sports, for instance, boating, can damage the water environment through noise pollution, the deposits left from boats, sediment disruption, erosion, and disturbance of fish habitats 109 , 110 during COVID-19. This is while stoppage of water sports competitions in the pandemic era may have decreased some of these unfavorable impacts. 10

4.15. Goal 15: Sport and sustainable use of land

The SDG 15 has the principle of protecting, recovering, and promoting the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, while managing forests in a sustainable way, combating desertification, stopping and reversing land degradation, and stopping biodiversity loss.

Quality sports practice has always required access to a healthy natural environment. With the rise in outdoor sports in nature, the conservation of terrestrial spaces and ecosystems has become a major challenge for the sports world. Based on the example of events, labeled as “sustainable” or “zero waste” and initiatives combining sports and waste collection, the sports industry can be the source of innovative solutions for creating the eco-friendly practices. Sports events, and sports activities in general, provide a unique platform for raising public awareness since the early ages about the importance and the challenges of protecting forests and mountainous areas. 69

Sport can play a very important role in the preservation and conservation of our land. In Tokyo 2020, activities to clean up forests and parks were so extensive to get prepared for the event. 111

Compared to other SDG goals in sports, COVID-19 had the least pressure on the goal 15. However, the competitions in which people were invited to promote and preserve nature and ecosystems were stopped. 112

4.16. Goal 16: The role of sports in peace, justice, and strong institutions

Remaining in quarantine and stopping the social and economic activities of the people during the pandemic increased the number of violent behaviors and human conflicts. 113

Sport has always been used as the best solution to individual, national, or international conflicts. Sports diplomacy is a gateway for countries to confront their political problems through sports. This way, sport can help build bridges between communities in conflict. 68 The history of sports is full of examples in which sports and athletes have played an important role in solving the political problems of countries. 114

Some of the most important examples of the role of sports in conflict resolution include ping-pong diplomacy, which was used to resolve the political dispute between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in the 1970s. Didier Drogba, the football legend, is another example of sports that had an important role in stopping a civil war in the Ivory Coast in the 2000s. As other examples of athletes playing important roles in confronting political discriminations, reference should be made to a group of brilliant names in sports history such as Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The latter athlete took black-gloved stance against racial inequality in the 1968 Summer Olympics. Members of the Zimbabwean cricket team wearing black armbands citing the “death of democracy in our beloved Zimbabwe” should also be mentioned. Alternatively, the “hands up, do not shoot” gestures, made by the St. Louis Rams in their 2014 NFL game against the Oakland Raiders, is another example. In each case, these evidences demonstrate the unique position that athletes reserve, especially considering the press coverage of major events. 115 Sometimes it is sports organizations that play an effective role in solving the problems. For example, let’s refer to the intervention of the World Football Federation to solve the problem of Iranian women attending football stadiums in 2019. 116

In addition, sports culture has concepts and values such as self-sacrifice, chivalry, fair play, and teamwork, each of which can provide young people and adolescents with important learning for their social life. 117

As mentioned, sport serves as a powerful means for bridging, bringing people together, and guaranteeing peace; it builds friendships and draws lines of respect across borders. Thomas Bach, the IOC president, declared: “The Olympic athletes show the whole world that it is possible to compete with each other while living peacefully together.” Contributing to building a peaceful and better world through sports is a Fundamental Principle of the Olympic Charter, and it is why the IOC regularly joins the celebrations of the International Day of Peace, observed around the world on 21 September. 118

The COVID-19 outbreak not only postponed the 2020 Olympics in Japan but also the competitions without spectators from different countries for a year, and this is the first time in the history of the Olympics that this important sporting event has been held without spectators from abroad. In fact, the peaceful and nondiscriminatory presence of the world’s people on the Olympic scene has been stopped only because of the coronavirus pandemic. 119 , 120

4.17. Goal 17: Sport and global partnership

Achieving sustainable development goals requires the cooperation and support of people, investors, organizations, and institutions. Sport can catalyze, build, and strengthen multistakeholder networks and partnerships for sustainable development and peace goals, involving and bringing together the public, governments, donors, NGOs, sports organizations, the private sector, academia, and the media. Sports can gather many supporters and create a network of sponsors who work to achieve sustainable development goals through the presence and support of sports. 68

Global partnership in different parts of the sorting industry was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) had challenging circumstances to work with their global communities, members, colleagues, partners, families, and friends whom the unprecedented spread of COVID-19 had impacted. About 30% of sporting goods-producing companies are looking to consolidate the supply base and keep only strategic partners. It means they have to decrease the number of their products and reduce their demand by canceling orders and restrict their global trading. 121

Nike collaborated with the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) and other member companies to launch a physical activity guide to support the World Health Organization’s (WHO) work to promote physical activity. `WHO Is Healthy at Home’ campaign encouraged people to stay active while being at home during the COVID-19 crisis, and the guide provided resources to help. In the guide, the president of Nike declared: “We used NIKE’s scale and influence to raise the bar for sustainability. We launched our Supplier Climate Action Program to develop pathways for carbon reduction for our materials and finished goods manufacturers”. 122

5. Cons and pros of COVID-19 for the sports industry and sustainable development

It could be argued that the global outbreak of COVID-19 was the most significant crisis of 2020 and 2021. This crisis in the sports industry is a turning point for the present and future of world sports. Although this crisis had unfortunate consequences for the people of the world, we should not forget that this crisis also led to good results, which are briefly discussed as follows. The crisis of COVID-19 taught us the following points:

• The world is truly a global village where good and bad events do not always remain within the confines of one country or region and can involve the whole world. So, think global and instead of improving the situation of a country, think about the welfare and health of the whole world. It reminds the great concept in Iranian poet, Saadi’s famous poem: “Human beings are members of a whole, since in their creation they are of one essence, when the conditions of the time bring a member (limb) to pain, the other members (limbs) will suffer from discomfort.” 123 So, if Olympic Games are stopped, it means sports in all the world are stopped, and it means that it is a common pain.
• To take potential risks seriously when planning for sports organizations to use Plan B when a crisis occurs and be able to manage the crisis. Lack of risk management programs in many sports organizations worldwide caused them serious economic, social, and organizational problems. This B plan can include organizational performance, production, human resource management, national and international communication, etc.
• To learn from each other in times of crisis and help each other keep world sports alive and active. When in a particular country, the sports authorities decide a resistance program against pandemic to keep their sports alive, and they succeed, then other countries can follow suit and repeat their experience in their country.
• Human communication is essential for survival and sustainable development. During the pandemic era, social media was the best means of communication among people trapped in-home quarantine, and athletes around the world tried to use social media to help people maintain their physical and mental health through exercise. Many athletes became the social leaders of the people of the world and gave them morale and hope. It means that sports heroes belong to all the world.
• Education is a global requirement, and a pandemic with the help of digital media and platforms has helped professionals worldwide hold international webinars and global education through webinars and virtual conferences. Corona brought experts and scientists closer together and made scientific communication easier and wider in the world.
• Conservation of nature and the ecosystem is essential to guarantee better life for all the world people. Sports is always a good platform for guiding and teaching people to preserve nature. The pandemic has drawn the attention of sports organizations to sustainable development through sports more than before. Waste management in sports, use of natural energy and carbon dioxide, and prevention of environmental pollution, caused by holding sports competitions, need paying more attention in the postpandemic era to guarantee sustainable development and ecosystem preservation.
• Compared to other issues, central issues of sustainable development, i.e., social and economic justice, were affected the most in the pandemic era. Domestic violence against women, the economic losses of women’s sports, discrimination against women, the poor economic situation of sports club staff, the bankruptcy of sports club owners, inadequate health insurance support, the disabled and the elderly sports, etc. are some of the most important harmful aspects of the pandemic. In the postcorona era, sports organizations need to pay more attention to them.
• Finally, although COVID-19 was a serious threat to all sports organizations and people around the world, organizations and intelligent people took advantage of the threat and, by carrying out social and economic activities tailored to the needs of today’s society, became the leaders of organizational innovation in the sports world. Furthermore, the post-COVID-19 special sports products and activities that could engage individuals and organizations reaped unprecedented revenue for their producers and sponsors.

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Long COVID has affected millions. Here's what scientists now know.

July 19, 2024 / 5:19 PM EDT / The Conversation

Ziyad Al-Aly is chief of research and development at VA St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis .

Since 2020, the condition known as long COVID-19 has become a widespread disability affecting the health and quality of life of millions of people across the globe and costing economies billions of dollars in reduced productivity of employees and an overall drop in the work force.

The intense scientific effort that long COVID sparked has resulted in more than 24,000 scientific publications , making it the most researched health condition in any four years of recorded human history.

Long COVID is a term that describes the constellation of long-term health effects caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These range from persistent respiratory symptoms, such as shortness of breath, to debilitating fatigue or brain fog that limits people's ability to work, and conditions such as heart failure and diabetes, which are known to last a lifetime.

I am a physician scientist, and I have been deeply immersed in studying long COVID since the early days of the pandemic. I have testified before the U.S. Senate as an expert witness on long COVID, have published extensively on it and was named as one of Time's 100 most influential people in health in 2024 for my research in this area.

Over the first half of 2024, a flurry of reports and scientific papers on long COVID added clarity to this complex condition. These include, in particular, insights into how COVID-19 can still wreak havoc in many organs years after the initial viral infection, as well as emerging evidence on viral persistence and immune dysfunction that last for months or years after initial infection.

How long COVID affects the body

A new study that my colleagues and I published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 17, 2024, shows that the risk of long COVID declined over the course of the pandemic. In 2020, when the ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-2 was dominant and vaccines were not available, about 10.4% of adults who got COVID-19 developed long COVID. By early 2022, when the omicron family of variants predominated, that rate declined to 7.7% among unvaccinated adults and 3.5% of vaccinated adults. In other words, unvaccinated people were more than twice as likely to develop long COVID.

While researchers like me do not yet have concrete numbers for the current rate in mid-2024 due to the time it takes for long COVID cases to be reflected in the data, the flow of new patients into long COVID clinics has been on par with 2022.

We found that the decline was the result of two key drivers: availability of vaccines and changes in the characteristics of the virus — which made the virus less prone to cause severe acute infections and may have reduced its ability to persist in the human body long enough to cause chronic disease.

Despite the decline in risk of developing long COVID, even a 3.5% risk is substantial. New and repeat COVID-19 infections translate into millions of new long COVID cases that add to an already staggering number of people suffering from this condition.

Estimates for the first year of the pandemic suggests that at least 65 million people globally have had long COVID. Along with a group of other leading scientists, my team will soon publish updated estimates of the global burden of long COVID and its impact on the global economy through 2023.

In addition, a major new report by the National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine details all the health effects that constitute long COVID . The report was commissioned by the Social Security Administration to understand the implications of long COVID on its disability benefits.

A graphic listing symptoms of long COVID including autoimmune issues, cough, exhaustion, GI issues, brain fog, sleep problems, joint pain, organ damage, changes in smell or taste, headaches, changes in menstrual cycles, stress and depression.

It concludes that long COVID is a complex chronic condition that can result in more than 200 health effects across multiple body systems. These include new onset or worsening:

heart disease
neurologic problems such as cognitive impairment , strokes and dysautonomia. This is a category of disorders that affect the body's autonomic nervous system — nerves that regulate most of the body's vital mechanisms such as blood pressure, heart rate and temperature.
post-exertional malaise, a state of severe exhaustion that may happen after even minor activity — often leaving the patient unable to function for hours, days or weeks
gastrointestinal disorders
kidney disease
metabolic disorders such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia, or a rise in bad cholesterol
immune dysfunction

Long COVID can affect people across the lifespan from children to older adults and across race and ethnicity and baseline health status. Importantly, more than 90% of people with long COVID had mild COVID-19 infections.

The National Academies report also concluded that long COVID can result in the inability to return to work or school; poor quality of life; diminished ability to perform activities of daily living; and decreased physical and cognitive function for months or years after the initial infection.

The report points out that many health effects of long COVID, such as post-exertional malaise and chronic fatigue, cognitive impairment and autonomic dysfunction, are not currently captured in the Social Security Administration's Listing of Impairments , yet may significantly affect an individual's ability to participate in work or school.

A long road ahead

What's more, health problems resulting from COVID-19 can last years after the initial infection.

A large study published in early 2024 showed that even people who had a mild SARS-CoV-2 infection still experienced new health problems related to COVID-19 in the third year after the initial infection.

Such findings parallel other research showing that the virus persists in various organ systems for months or years after COVID-19 infection. And research is showing that immune responses to the infection are still evident two to three years after a mild infection. Together, these studies may explain why a SARS-CoV-2 infection years ago could still cause new health problems long after the initial infection.

Important progress is also being made in understanding the pathways by which long COVID wreaks havoc on the body. Two preliminary studies from the U.S. and the Netherlands show that when researchers transfer auto-antibodies – antibodies generated by a person's immune system that are directed at their own tissues and organs – from people with long COVID into healthy mice, the animals start to experience long COVID-like symptoms such as muscle weakness and poor balance.

These studies suggest that an abnormal immune response thought to be responsible for the generation of these auto-antibodies may underlie long COVID and that removing these auto-antibodies may hold promise as potential treatments.

An ongoing threat

Despite overwhelming evidence of the wide-ranging risks of COVID-19, a great deal of messaging suggests that it is no longer a threat to the public. Although there is no empirical evidence to back this up, this misinformation has permeated the public narrative.

The data, however, tells a different story.

COVID-19 infections continue to outnumber flu cases and lead to more hospitalization and death than the flu. COVID-19 also leads to more serious long-term health problems . Trivializing COVID-19 as an inconsequential cold or equating it with the flu does not align with reality.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Coronavirus Disease 2019
Coronavirus

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Sport anxiety and subjective happiness of college athletes: a self-determination theory perspective.

1 Faculty of Sports and Health, Chongqing Electronic Information College, Chongqing, China
2 Faculty of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3 School of Foundation Courses, Chongqing Institute of Engineering, Chongqing, China
4 Hope College, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
5 School of Liberal Arts, Shinawatra University, Pathum Thani, Thailand
6 Faculty of Education & Liberal Studies, City University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7 Guangxi Water Conservancy and Electric Power Vocational and Technical College, Nanning, China
8 School of Education and Modern Languages, University of Northern Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia

Introduction: Sport anxiety not only impacts the performance of college athletes but also influences their psychological well-being. The psychological well-being of sports students is crucial for both academic performance and competition, as they need to balance their academic performance with professional athletic training.

Method: Based on self-determination theory, this study examines the relationship between various factors in sport anxiety (somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption) and subjective happiness, as well as the mediating role of need satisfaction in this relationship. A total of 835 college athletic students participated in the study, completing the Sport Anxiety Scale-2, Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale-in General, and Subjective Happiness Scale.

Results: An analysis of gender differences revealed that female participants scored significantly higher on somatic anxiety ( t = −2.21, df = 833, p = 0.028, Cohen’s d = −0.155) and worry ( t = −3.17, df = 833, p = 0.002, Cohen’s d = −0.223) compared to males. In the analysis by sport type, participants engaged in team sports scored significantly higher on somatic anxiety ( t = 2.70, df = 833, p = 0.007, Cohen’s d = 0.187), Worry ( t = 1.97, df = 833, p = 0.049, Cohen’s d = 0.136), and concentration disruption ( t = 2.73, df = 833, p = 0.007, Cohen’s d = 0.189) than those in individual sports. Additionally, in the analysis by grade level, freshman college athletes exhibited significantly lower sport anxiety compared to sophomore athletes [ F (4, 830) = 4.06, p = 0.003, η p 2 =0.019]. The mediation analysis revealed that concentration disruption in sport anxiety is significantly and negatively related to subjective happiness. Additionally, need satisfaction (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) mediates the relationship between worry, as well as concentration disruption in sport anxiety and subjective happiness.

Discussion: Future research should build on the current study by employing longitudinal designs and integrating multiple objective measures to further explore the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness.

Introduction

Mental health issues undoubtedly impact every aspect of our lives, permeating through work and studies. For college athletic students, the burden is twofold, requiring regular participation in practices and competitions while also attending classes and completing assignments. The NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Study, which investigated the mental health of student-athletes, revealed alarming trends ( NCAA, 2022 ). According to the study, student-athletes with mental health problems are 1.5 to 2 times more likely to experience mental health issues compared to the pre-COVID-19 era. Significantly, higher rates of anxiety and mental exhaustion were observed in this population. In a recent study involving 615 athletic college students, it was found that 129 participants surpassed the average college student in both state and trait anxiety ( Weber et al., 2023 ). Therefore, a study of the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness in college athletes is necessary to identify potential protective factors and provide evidence for targeted mental health interventions.

Anxiety and sport anxiety

Anxiety is a psychological state triggered by an anticipated threat or potential threat and is a normal part of the human experience. However, excessive anxiety can have a direct impact on our lives and learning and can even develop into a disorder ( Gross and Hen, 2004 ). For example, previous research has found that individuals with high anxiety perform more poorly on decision-making tasks such as the Iowa Gambling Task compared to those with low anxiety ( Miu et al., 2008 ). Meanwhile, a meta-analysis that included more than 100 studies found anxiety to be significantly and negatively correlated with academic performance ( Seipp, 1991 ). There are various types of anxiety, with the most common being state and trait anxiety ( Spielberger et al., 1971 ). State anxiety represents an emotional state characterized by feelings of tension, apprehension, and increased autonomic nervous system activity. In contrast, trait anxiety refers to enduring individual differences in anxiety tendencies that are integrated with personality traits. Also included in the spectrum of anxiety are social anxiety ( Morrison and Heimberg, 2013 ; Askari and Zia-Tohidi, 2023 ), characterized by a fear of rejection and negative evaluation in social interactions, and sports anxiety ( Smith et al., 1990 , 2006 ), which manifests in the context of athletic competition.

Anxiety is one of the most commonly researched topics in sports psychology, not only because it affects an athlete’s mental health but also due to its direct impact on performance in both training and competition ( Woodman and Hardy, 2003 ). In order to measure anxiety associated with sports activities more effectively, researchers have developed specialized tools designed for assessing sports-related anxiety. Examples of such tools include the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 ( Martens et al., 1990 ) and the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2) ( Smith et al., 2006 ). Each scale has distinct characteristics; for instance, the CSAI-2 assesses cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence, while the SAS-2 targets sport-specific trait anxiety, encompassing three factors: somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption.

Anxiety and subjective well-being

Subjective well-being refers to an individual’s subjective assessment of their own life, encompassing both cognitive and emotional evaluations of personal or general events. It involves judgments of satisfaction with various aspects of life and incorporates what people commonly refer to as happiness and life satisfaction ( Diener et al., 2003 ). Anxiety, characterized as a state of negative affect—opposite to happiness—undoubtedly influences subjective well-being ( McNiel et al., 2010 ). For instance, individuals with General Anxiety Disorder commonly experience intense feelings of worry and struggle to manage them, leading to distress ( Wittchen and Hoyer, 2001 ). The Cognitive-Behavioral Model of General Anxiety Disorder suggests that these individuals adopt negative thought patterns and distorted beliefs, interpret life events negatively, diminish overall life satisfaction, and ultimately impact subjective well-being ( Dugas et al., 2005 ). Previous research has established significant negative correlations between both trait and social anxiety and life satisfaction as well as positive affect in well-being ( De Castella et al., 2014 ).

Despite the mental health benefits of participating in sports, athletes become more susceptible to anxiety disorders and depression as the pressure to compete intensifies ( Rice et al., 2016 ). Student-athletes are more susceptible to mental health problems, which may be related to their athletic identity and dual career motivation. Sports students must consider how to balance their roles and identities as both students and athletes. This balance, often referred to as “athletic identity,” pertains to the extent to which an individual identifies with the role of an athlete ( Brewer et al., 1993 ). Previous research has identified significant differences in athletic identity among college athletes based on age and level of competition. Specifically, younger athletes tend to have higher identity, while athletes competing at higher levels exhibit more pronounced identity ( Lupo et al., 2017a ). In addition, a student-athlete’s social identity can predict their psychosocial adjustment over time ( Parker et al., 2021 ). Notably, athletes with a high athletic identity reported higher levels of depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to those with medium or low athletic identity ( Antoniak et al., 2022 ). Additionally, student-athletes possess dual career motivations: academic motivation and athletic (or sport) motivation. These motivations can, respectively, impact their academic performance and psychological well-being ( Gaston-Gayles, 2004 ; Stenling et al., 2015 ). Previous studies among Italian student-athletes have identified significant differences in academic and sport motivation based on gender, sport type, and competition level ( Lupo et al., 2017b ).

As mentioned earlier, anxiety not only influences the athletic performance of a college athlete but also has a significant impact on their mental health. Prior meta-analytic studies have revealed a positive correlation between anxiety and burnout ( Koutsimani et al., 2019 ). Furthermore, a study on a sample of young athletes discovered a correlation between athlete trait anxiety and burnout, with cognitive reappraisal identified as a mediating factor ( Gomes et al., 2017 ). In addition, previous studies have identified sport anxiety as a key variable in predicting dysfunctional coping behaviors among college students in sports ( Contreras et al., 2023 ). Given the high prevalence of anxiety among college athletic students ( Weber et al., 2023 ), it is crucial to investigate the relationship of sport anxiety and subjective happiness, explore potential protective factors, and consequently offer targeted guidance for mental health and happiness interventions in this population ( Egan, 2019 ). Furthermore, prior research has not explored the distinct contributions of various factors of sports anxiety on subjective happiness. For instance, how do somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption differ in influencing subjective happiness?

Self-determination theory and subjective well-being

Over the past few decades, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has explored the connection between motivation and subjective well-being ( Ryan and Deci, 2002 ). SDT is a macro-theory encompassing human motivation, personality development, and well-being. Specifically, SDT centers on self-determined behavior and the social and cultural conditioning that supports it ( Deci and Ryan, 2012 ). SDT proposes a set of fundamental and universal psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These needs are deemed essential for an individual’s psychological growth, integrity, and well-being, transcending cultural contexts and stages of development. When these three needs are nurtured and fulfilled within the social environment, individuals experience heightened vitality, self-motivation, and overall well-being. Conversely, thwarting or undermining these basic needs leads to diminished self-motivation and reduced well-being ( Deci and Ryan, 2012 ).

Researchers have also initiated inquiries into the relationship between anxiety and the need satisfaction, exploring how this connection influences various other variables. For example, previous research has explored the connection between social physique anxiety and psychological needs related to physical activity. It has revealed that social physique anxiety directly impacts need satisfaction and, through psychological needs, indirectly influences physical behavior ( Brunet and Sabiston, 2009 ). In a recent large-sample study, the effects of negative affect on psychological need satisfaction and subjective well-being were investigated. The results indicated that negative affect had a negative impact on all three types of need satisfaction in SDT, ultimately influencing participants’ life satisfaction ( Šakan et al., 2020 ). At the same time, the three need satisfactions of SDT were identified as partial mediators between negative affect and life satisfaction.

The present study

This study aims to investigate the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness among college athletes, as well as to explore the mediating role of need satisfaction in this relationship from the perspective of SDT. Drawing on the insights from prior research ( Koutsimani et al., 2019 ; Contreras et al., 2023 ), we formulated our first hypothesis (H1) that college athletes’ sports anxiety is negatively associated with subjective happiness. In addition, based on previous findings ( Brunet and Sabiston, 2009 ; Šakan et al., 2020 ), we anticipated that the three need satisfactions in SDT would act as mediators in the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness (H2). Finally, previous research has found that some demographic variables of participants also influence sport anxiety ( Ramis et al., 2015 ; Marín-González et al., 2022 ; Martínez-Gallego et al., 2022 ). For example, significant differences in sport anxiety have been found by gender (male vs. female) and by type of sport (individual vs. team) ( Ramis et al., 2015 ). Additionally, other studies have found significant differences in sport anxiety across age, education level, and competitive level ( Marín-González et al., 2022 ). Therefore, given the sample size of the current study, we aim to further compare differences in key variables (e.g., sport anxiety) across gender, sport type, grade level, and competitive level.

Participants

The current study was conducted using the online questionnaire platform, where participants accessed the questionnaire by scanning a QR code with their mobile phones. A total of 951 collegiate sports athletes voluntarily took part in the study. These participants completed the survey as part of their coursework and received course credit in return. To maintain data quality, we incorporated appropriate quality-check questions within the questionnaire. For example, one question asked, ‘What color is a ripe banana (red, yellow, blue, or black)?’ Participants who chose incorrectly (the correct answer being ‘yellow’) were excluded from the final data analysis. Additionally, responses with low completion times (less than 30 s) were also excluded to ensure the participants’ commitment to their answers. Consequently, the final data analysis included 835 sports athletes’ students. There were 494 male and 341 female participants, with a mean age of 20.63 years and a standard deviation of 3.32 years. Among the participants, 475 were freshmen, 219 were sophomores, 37 were juniors, 8 were seniors, and 96 were graduate students. They trained in various sports, including basketball (128), football (109), volleyball (34), table tennis (205), badminton (94), Wushu (21), track and field (41), water sports (15), dance (23), gymnastics (10), tai chi (15), tennis (5), and other sports (135). We categorized these participants based on the type of sport they played, with 409 engaged in individual sports (e.g., swimming, and martial arts) and 426 involved in team sports (e.g., basketball and tennis). Additionally, 621 of these participants have competed at the university level, 82 at the city level, 91 at the provincial level, 32 at the national level, and 9 at the world level. The study protocol received approval from the local school ethics committee.

The sport anxiety scale-2 (SAS-2)

The SAS-2 is a 15-item questionnaire designed to measure the levels of anxiety experienced by athletes before and during competition ( Smith et al., 2006 ). The scale comprises three factors: somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption, each consisting of five items. Participants in this study responded using a four-point Likert scale, where 1 indicated “not at all” and 4 indicated “very much.” Higher scores on the scale indicate greater levels of sports anxiety experienced either before or during competition. The SAS-2 has demonstrated strong psychometric properties in various languages, including the Chinese version, which was employed in the present study. Our research utilized the same Chinese version of the SAS-2 as utilized in previous study ( Zhang et al., 2023 ). Regarding the reliability of the SAS-2 in our study, we calculated Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, which yielded values of 0.86 for somatic anxiety, 0.87 for worry, and 0.85 for concentration disruption. The overall reliability coefficient for the entire scale was 0.94.

Basic psychological need satisfaction scale-in general (BPNSS-G)

The BPNSS-G is designed to assess the overall fulfillment of individuals’ needs in various aspects of life ( Ryan and Deci, 2002 ). It specifically evaluates three fundamental needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness, comprising a total of 21 items. Participants responded to these items using a 7-point Likert scale, where 1 denoted “not at all true” and 7 represented “very true.” For our research, we adopted the Chinese version of the BPNSS-G ( Liu et al., 2013 ), which was translated and validated. This Chinese version consists of 19 items and has shown good structure validity and robust reliability in previous research ( Liu et al., 2013 ). In our present study, we computed Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the three factors of the BPNSS-G. These coefficients were 0.76 for competence, 0.79 for autonomy, and 0.73 for relatedness. Furthermore, the reliability coefficient for the total scale was 0.84.

Subjective happiness scale (SHS)

The SHS comprises four items that assess individuals’ agreement with statements regarding their well-being and life satisfaction ( Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999 ). The SHS is a widely employed self-report measure that provides a straightforward yet valid assessment of subjective happiness ( Spagnoli et al., 2012 ; Extremera and Fernández-Berrocal, 2014 ). In our current study, we utilized the Chinese version of the SHS, which has demonstrated robust psychometric properties in a Chinese context ( Nan et al., 2014 ). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for the SHS in our study was 0.76.

Participants completed the questionnaire anonymously using their mobile phones by scanning a QR code during their physical education (PE) sessions. Data for this study were collected through multiple visits to various universities.

Statistical analysis

The study employed SPSS 22.0 (IBM Corp., United States) and JASP version 0.18.03 ( JASP Team, 2024 ) for statistical analyses, maintaining a significance level (alpha) of 0.05. Specifically, the data were first tested for common method bias, followed by descriptive and correlation analyses between variables. Next, independent samples t -tests and one-way ANOVA were used to test for differences in demographic variables on sport anxiety, need satisfaction, and subjective happiness. Finally, mediation analysis tests were conducted using JASP version 0.18.03.

Test for common method bias

In the present study, we employed two strategies to address potential common method bias concerns. First, our measurement instrument incorporated diverse scale formats ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Second, we conducted statistical analyses to evaluate the extent of common method bias ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Specifically, we performed a Harman one-factor test on the three principal variables in our study—Sport anxiety, Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, and Subjective happiness. The exploratory factor analysis, employing an unrotated factor solution, revealed the presence of five factors. Notably, the first factor accounted for the largest covariance at 26.01%. This finding suggests that common method bias is unlikely to significantly impact the study’s results as a contaminant.

Descriptive and correlation analysis

We computed the mean, standard deviation, and Pearson correlation coefficient for each variable in our study. The detailed results are presented in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Descriptive statistics and correlations.

The correlation results indicated significant negative correlations between all three factors of the SAS-2 and the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, as well as a significant negative correlation with subjective happiness. Additionally, the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness exhibited significant positive correlations with subjective happiness.

Differences in demographic variables in sport anxiety, need satisfaction, and subjective happiness

To better understand the effects of participant demographic variables on sport anxiety, need satisfaction, and subjective happiness, we conducted independent samples t-tests for different genders and types of sport, followed by one-way analyses of variance for participants in different grades and levels of competition.

As shown in Table 2 , female participants scored significantly higher than males on somatic anxiety ( t = −2.21, df = 833, p = 0.028, Cohen’s d = −0.155) and worry ( t = −3.17, df = 833, p = 0.002, Cohen’s d = −0.223) in sport anxiety. In addition, the differences between participants of different genders on the three needs satisfaction as well as subjective happiness were not significant.

Table 2 . Results of independent samples t -tests on key variables by gender.

Comparison of participants practicing different types of sports revealed that those practicing individual sports scored significantly higher on somatic anxiety ( t = 2.70, df = 833, p = 0.007, Cohen’s d = 0.187), worry ( t = 1.97, df = 833, p = 0.049, Cohen’s d = 0.136), and concentration disruption ( t = 2.73, df = 833, p = 0.007, Cohen’s d = 0.189) than those practicing team sports. Similarly, participants practicing different sports did not differ significantly in need satisfaction and subjective happiness (as shown in Table 3 ).

Table 3 . Results of independent samples t -tests on key variables by type of sport.

The analysis revealed significant differences in somatic anxiety by grade level ( Table 4 ), F (4, 830) = 4.06, p = 0.003, η p 2 =0.019, Post hoc comparisons indicated that freshmen scored significantly lower than sophomores ( p = 0.003). Additionally, there were significant differences in concentration disruption across grades, F (4, 830) = 5.09, p < 0.001, η p 2 =0.024, with freshmen scoring significantly lower than sophomores ( p = 0.003) and juniors ( p = 0.024). However, the difference in worry across grades was not significant, F (4, 830) = 2.18, p = 0.069, η p 2 =0.010. Finally, the differences in competence ( p = 0.131), autonomy ( p = 0.125), relatedness ( p = 0.108), and subjective happiness ( p = 0.085) across different grades were not significant.

Table 4 . Descriptive data on sport anxiety, need satisfaction and subjective happiness of participants in different grades ( M ± SD ).

The only significant difference between participants at different levels of competition was in competence for general need satisfaction ( Table 5 ), F (4, 830) = 2.51, p = 0.041, η p 2 =0.012, Post hoc comparisons revealed that participants who competed at the university level had lower competence scores than those who competed at the provincial level ( p = 0.069).

Table 5 . Descriptive data on sport anxiety, general need satisfaction and subjective happiness of participants in different competition level ( M ± SD ).

Mediation model analysis

To test the hypotheses, a mediation analysis was conducted with the three factors of sport anxiety (somatic anxiety, worry, and concentration disruption) as independent variables, the three needs of SDT as mediator variables, and subjective happiness as the dependent variable. Gender, sport type, grade, and competition level were included as control variables, and bootstrap resampling (5,000 samples) was applied.

The results of the mediation analysis found that among the total effects, concentration disruption in sport anxiety (effect = −0.167, SE = 0.056, p = 0.003) was significantly negatively related to subjective happiness ( Table 6 ). This result partially supports Hypothesis 1, indicating that only concentration disruption in sport anxiety is significantly negatively related to subjective happiness. In the indirect effects, we found that the three types of need satisfaction played a significant mediating role in the relationship between worry (effect = −0.051, SE = 0.023, p = 0.030) as well as concentration disruption (effect = −0.121, SE = 0.026, p < 0.001) in sport anxiety and subjective happiness, respectively. In this context, competence and autonomy need satisfaction mediate the relationship between worry and subjective happiness, while competence, autonomy, and relatedness mediate the relationship between concentration disruption and subjective happiness. This result also partially validates Hypothesis 2, which posits that the three need satisfactions mediate the relationship between sport anxiety (worry and concentration disruption) and subjective happiness ( Figure 1 ).

Table 6 . Effects of each path.

Figure 1 . Mediation analysis path results. Solid lines indicate significant path effects, while gray dashed lines represent non-significant path effects. *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01,* p < 0.05.

Using the SDT framework, this study examined the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness, as well as the mediating role of psychological need satisfaction, in a sample of college athletes. We first found that demographic variables affect sport anxiety, with significant differences observed between participants of different genders, types of sports, and grade levels. Subsequently, mediation analysis revealed that concentration disruption in sport anxiety was significantly and negatively related to subjective happiness. Additionally, the three need satisfactions from SDT mediated the relationship between sport anxiety (worry and concentration disruption) and subjective happiness. The results of our study not only uncovered the relationship between different factors of sport anxiety and subjective happiness but also revealed the mediating mechanisms in this relationship.

The first goal of our study was to investigate the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness among college athletes. We found that worry and concentration disruption in sport anxiety were negatively correlated with subjective happiness, consistent with previous research findings ( Gomes et al., 2017 ; Contreras et al., 2023 ). While earlier studies have primarily focused on anxiety’s effects on burnout and coping styles, our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness. Findings from the current study further elucidate the relationship between different factors of sport anxiety and subjective happiness. Specifically, concentration disruption in sport anxiety was negatively correlated with subjective happiness. Worry was significantly negatively correlated with subjective happiness indirectly through competence and autonomy in need satisfaction. No correlation was found between somatic anxiety and subjective happiness. In sport anxiety, concentration disruption measures difficulties related to concentration in competitive activities, somatic anxiety captures physiological responses like muscle tension, and worry reflects concerns about performance ( Smith et al., 2006 ).

To delve deeper into the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness, we investigated the roles played by the three needs in SDT. Our results found that concentration disruption in sport anxiety was negatively correlated with all three need satisfactions, while worry was negatively correlated with competence and autonomy in need satisfaction, aligning with previous research ( Brunet and Sabiston, 2009 ; Šakan et al., 2020 ). In addition, we found that the three types of need satisfaction in SDT were positively related to subjective happiness. In the mediation analyses, the needs in SDT were identified as mediators of the relationship between the different factors of sport anxiety (worry and concentration disruption) and subjective happiness. This discovery echoes previous research indicating that negative affect influences life satisfaction through the satisfaction of the three needs in SDT ( Šakan et al., 2020 ). Considering the mediating role of the three need satisfactions in SDT in the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness, an intervention program aimed at increasing these need satisfactions could help reduce the negative effects of sport anxiety on college athletes.

In addition, we examined differences in some demographic variables on sport anxiety, need satisfaction, and subjective happiness. The results found that female college athletes scored significantly higher on the somatic anxiety and worry factors of sport anxiety than male college athletes, consistent with findings from previous studies ( Ramis et al., 2015 ; Marín-González et al., 2022 ; Martínez-Gallego et al., 2022 ). Women are more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders, influenced by factors such as biological influences, temperament, stress and trauma, cognitive factors, and environmental factors ( McLean and Anderson, 2009 ). Additionally, the results indicated that participants engaged in individual sport programs had significantly higher levels of anxiety compared to those involved in team sports, aligning with findings from previous studies ( Ramis et al., 2015 ; Marín-González et al., 2022 ). It’s possible that anxiety and self-confidence among college athletes may not reliably predict performance when competing in team sports, as the collective efforts of other players can significantly influence game outcomes, potentially mitigating individual anxiety levels ( Craft et al., 2003 ). Finally, we also found that college athletes in their freshman year had significantly lower anxiety levels than college athletes in their sophomore year. This result may be attributed to increased academic and competitive pressures experienced by athletes in higher grades, leading to higher anxiety levels.

Limitations and future research

The current study is not without its limitations. First, the current study used a cross-sectional design to investigate the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness, which prevents us from making inferences about the causal relationship between these variables. Therefore, future research should consider using a longitudinal design to investigate this relationship, allowing for more robust inferences about causality. Second, all measurement instruments utilized in this study were based on self-report, which may introduce biases into the results (e.g., social desirability), despite our efforts to mitigate this by implementing quality checks to exclude non-serious responses. Future studies could use multiple measures or sources of data to increase the reliability of the results. For example, incorporating physiological metrics such as galvanic skin response and cortisol levels to assess participants’ emotional and physiological arousal. Third, the study’s sample comprised athletes from a typical athletic university rather than elite athletes. It is known that elite-level athletes often encounter higher levels of stress related to their athletic commitments, experiencing it more frequently, intensely, and for longer durations than their lower-level counterparts ( Arnold et al., 2016 ). Elite athletes also demonstrate increased susceptibility to depression and anxiety during times of heightened stress ( Rice et al., 2016 ). Therefore, caution should be exercised when generalizing the findings of this study to professional elite athletes. Future research should prioritize the inclusion of diverse measures in studies involving elite athletes, thus offering a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between anxiety and subjective well-being in this specific population. Such insights would be invaluable in tailoring effective mental health intervention programs for professional elite athletes.

Finally, another limitation of this study is that it did not take into account other important factors such as college athletes’ identity and motivation, their social support, and coping mechanisms. As mentioned in the introduction, student-athletes possess dual motivations related to their academic and athletic careers, as well as dual identities as students and athletes. It is important to note that both identity and motivation are associated with mental health. High levels of autonomy lead to increased self-confidence and reduced anxiety ( Menegassi et al., 2018 ), while negative emotions related to exercise identity can affect both state and trait anxiety. Additionally, the level of trait anxiety decreases with increasing self-identity ( Masten et al., 2006 ). Previous research has found that higher levels of satisfaction with social support from family and friends are associated with lower anxiety symptom scores ( Sullivan et al., 2022 ). Therefore, future research should also measure identity and motivation as well as social support in college athletes, considering that these factors can vary greatly depending on demographic variables and can have a moderating role in the relationship between sports anxiety and subjective happiness ( Lupo et al., 2017a , b ).

In conclusion, this study explored the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness in college athletes, as well as the mediating role of need satisfaction. These findings suggest that concentration disruption in sport anxiety is directly related to subjective happiness. Additionally, the three types of need satisfaction in SDT play a mediating role in the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness. Specifically, competence and autonomy in need satisfaction mediate the relationship between worry and subjective happiness in sport anxiety. Finally, there were significant differences in college athletes’ sport anxiety across gender, sport type, and grade level. The results of this study not only shed further light on the relationship between sport anxiety and subjective happiness but also provide new insights into mental health intervention programs and strategies in college physical education.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by School of Foundation Courses, Chongqing Institute of Engineering. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

ZZ: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis. XC: Writing – review & editing, Validation, Methodology. LX: Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Validation. XQ: Writing – review & editing, Validation, Supervision, Methodology. AV: Supervision, Methodology, Writing – review & editing, Validation.

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Acknowledgments

The authors sincerely thank all the participants who contributed to this study. Additionally, we are grateful to the three reviewers for their valuable comments and insights.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: sport anxiety, subjective happiness, self-determination theory, college athletes, concentration disruption

Citation: Zhang Z, Chen X, Xu L, Qin X and Veloo A (2024) Sport anxiety and subjective happiness of college athletes: a self-determination theory perspective. Front. Psychol . 15:1400094. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1400094

Received: 13 March 2024; Accepted: 08 July 2024; Published: 24 July 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Chen, Xu, Qin and Veloo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Xiao Qin, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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What We Know About the Global Microsoft Outage

Airlines to banks to retailers were affected in many countries. Businesses are struggling to recover.

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By Eshe Nelson and Danielle Kaye

Eshe Nelson reported from London and Danielle Kaye from New York.

Across the world, critical businesses and services including airlines, hospitals, train networks and TV stations, were disrupted on Friday by a global tech outage affecting Microsoft users.

In many countries, flights were grounded, workers could not get access to their systems and, in some cases, customers could not make card payments in stores. While some of the problems were resolved within hours, many businesses, websites and airlines continued to struggle to recover.

What happened?

A series of outages rippled across the globe as information displays, login systems and broadcasting networks went dark.

The problem affecting the majority of services was caused by a flawed update by CrowdStrike , an American cybersecurity firm, whose systems are intended to protect users from hackers. Microsoft said on Friday that it was aware of an issue affecting machines running “CrowdStrike Falcon.”

But Microsoft had also said there was an earlier outage affecting U.S. users of Azure, its cloud service system. Some users may have been affected by both. Even as CrowdStrike sent out a fix, some systems were still affected by midday in the United States as businesses needed to make manual updates to their systems to resolve the issue.

George Kurtz, the president and chief executive of CrowdStrike, said on Friday morning that it could take some time for some systems to recover.

How a Software Update Crashed Computers Around the World

Here’s a visual explanation for how a faulty software update crippled machines.

How the airline cancellations rippled around the world (and across time zones)

Share of canceled flights at 25 airports on Friday

50% of flights

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Dhaka Shahjalal

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Most of the papers focus on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on social life and sport and on the strategies put in place to limit or manage these effects. ... J.-C., & Sallé, L. (2022). The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on sports-based youth development: The Case of the Rugby Association 'Rebonds!'. Contemporary Social Science, DOI ...
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The economic impact of the COVID-19 epidemic globally remains to be assessed (Duan et al., 2020; Johnson et al., 2020). But now, a decline in tourism and the transport industry is already evident. How long such changes will last is not known. How the Epidemic Affects the Sports. One of the areas of life affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is sports.
The Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Sport: Mental Health
With the cancellation of, for example, the Tokyo Olympic Paralympic Games, and the European Soccer Championships, the year 2020 will be recalled more readily for the shifts in the sporting season as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic rather than examples of stellar sporting excellence. Restrictions on travel, physical activity, and mass gatherings because of COVID19 pandemic have had major ...
Effects of the lockdown period on the mental health of elite athletes
Purpose This review aimed to assess the effects of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on mental health to elite athletes. The emotional background influenced their sport career and was examined by questionnaires. Methods We included original studies that investigated psychological outcomes in elite athletes during COVID-19 lockdown. Sixteen original studies (n = 4475 participants) were analyzed ...
7 Ways COVID-19 Has Changed Professional Sports
Aspen Institute: How COVID-19 in 2020 Could Impact the Future of Sports. SportTechie: How Sports Have Been Adapted Over the First Six Months of the Pandemic. Sports Travel Magazine: Sports Travel. The Washington Post: Sports Changes That Should Outlast the Pandemic. U.S. Chamber of Commerce: The Current and Future Impact of COVID-19 on the ...
The impact of COVID-19 on college students' physical activity
However, in contrast to exercising at school, home exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic was affected by various factors, [6,7] such as limited venues, family sports atmosphere, and incomplete equipment, it was difficult for college students to reach school requirements. [8-11] To promote college students' active participation in physical ...
The Impact of COVID-19 on High School Student-Athlete Experiences with
1. Introduction. In 2020, the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, spread rapidly around the globe [].To control the spread of COVID-19, health authorities enacted policies to increase physical distancing and limit person-to-person contact [2,3,4].This included closing schools, community centres, parks, athletic and fitness facilities, and halting organized sports [5,6].
UN/DESA Policy Brief #73: The impact of COVID-19 on sport, physical
The impact of COVID-19 on physical activity and well-being The global outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in closure of gyms, stadiums, pools, dance and fitness studios, physiotherapy centres, parks ...
How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay
Writing About COVID-19 in College Essays. Experts say students should be honest and not limit themselves to merely their experiences with the pandemic. The global impact of COVID-19, the disease ...
Insights into the impact on daily life of the COVID-19 pandemic and
1. Introduction. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented changes in people's daily lives, with implications for mental health and well-being [1-4], both at the level of a given country's population, and when considering specific vulnerable groups [5-7].In order to mitigate the untoward impact of the pandemic (including lockdown) and support mental health ...
COVID-19 impacts on school sports events: an alternative through E
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many sectors of society, including sports. Measuring the effects of an ongoing pandemic poses a complex task, given the incipiency of government actions and studies addressing the impacts on sports. In view of this, the purpose of this commentary is to explore how COVID-19 impacted school sports policies.
How to Write About the Impact of the Coronavirus in a College Essay
October 21, 2020 · 7 min read. The global impact of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, means colleges and prospective students alike are in for an admissions cycle like no ...
COVID-19: Its impact on life expectancy in Nepal
Sports. Entertainment. Lifestyle. Science&Tech. Blog. Environment. Health. ... The impact of COVID-19 on the life expectancy has been reported for India, the USA and European countries, too.
Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sports industry
The female and young sports workforce appears to have been much harder hit by COVID-19 in the first half of 2020. 66 During the pandemic, many sports organizations stopped hiring new staff. Others fired employees or hired them part-time or without pay, all of which harmed the employees' financial situation. 16, 67.
Long COVID has affected millions. Here's what scientists now know
Researchers have published more than 24,000 papers on long COVID — a constellation of health effects such as shortness of breath, fatigue, brain fog and heart failure that last months or years ...
Frontiers
Notably, athletes with a high athletic identity reported higher levels of depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to those with medium or low athletic identity (Antoniak et al., 2022). Additionally, student-athletes possess dual career motivations: academic motivation and athletic (or sport) motivation.
New Report: COVID School Lockdowns Had Lasting Impact on Students
Coronavirus. New Analysis Finds Lasting Impact for Students Affected by COVID School Lockdowns According to a new report, the average eighth-grader needs over nine months of extra school time to ...
What We Know About the Global Microsoft Outage
Across the world, critical businesses and services including airlines, hospitals, train networks and TV stations, were disrupted on Friday by a global tech outage affecting Microsoft users.

The impact of COVID-19 on sport, physical activity and well-being and its effects on social development

Introduction

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events and the implications for social development

The impact of COVID-19 on physical activity and well-being

Conclusions and Recommendations

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events

2. Professional sport ecosystem.

1. Supporting physical activity.

2. Research and policy guidance.

3. Technical cooperation and capacity development.

4. Outreach and awareness raising.

5. Promoting positive social attitudes and behaviour.

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Effects of the lockdown period on the mental health of elite athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative review

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Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health in sports: a review

Depressive symptoms among Olympic athletes during the Covid-19 pandemic

Introduction

Search strategy

Study selection criteria

Descriptive and methodological characteristics of the studies

Mental health outcomes, coping strategies, resilience and athletes’ motivation

Athletes’ profile mood state and personality

COVID-19 emotional reactions

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The impact of COVID-19 on college students’ physical activity

Background:

Methods:

Result:

Conclusion:

Systematic review registration:

1 Introduction

2.1 Registration

2.2 Inclusion criteria for considering studies

2.2.2 Types of participants

2.2.3 Types of interventions

2.2.4 Types of outcome assessments

2.3 Search strategy

2.4 Data collection

2.4.2 Data and information extraction

2.5 Assessment of risk of bias

2.6 Data analysis

2.6.2 Date synthesis

2.6.3 Subgroup analysis

2.6.4 Sensitivity analysis

2.7 Assessment of publication bias

2.8 Confidence in cumulative evidence

3 Discussion

Author contributions

UN/DESA Policy Brief #73: The impact of COVID-19 on sport, physical activity and well-being and its effects on social development

Introduction

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events and the implications for social development

The impact of COVID-19 on physical activity and well-being

Conclusions and Recommendations

The impact of COVID-19 on sporting events

2. Professional sport ecosystem.

1. Supporting physical activity.

2. Research and policy guidance.

3. Technical cooperation and capacity development.

4. Outreach and awareness raising.

5. Promoting positive social attitudes and behaviour.

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COVID-19: Its impact on life expectancy in Nepal

NSO has also published life expectancies for the seven provinces using the 2021 census data. According to the NSO, life expectancy is the highest in Karnali Province despite the fact that Karnali is a remote region, and its socio-economic indicators are among the lowest in the country