Syracuse

Due to the rapid spread of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease or (Covid19) caused by a virus called SARSCoV2, all sports activities across the world abruptly stopped in March 2020.

In order to minimize the burden of the world pandemic, governments worldwide began to take measures to protect the spread among their population. These measures, including social distancing regulations, mask requirements, curfews, school closures and travel restrictions, had a strong impact on public life and the economy. At the beginning of April 2020, most of the world's population found themselves in the so-called spring 2020 global lockdown.

The implementation of these measures also forced sports into a global "rest period." On 24 March 2020, it was announced that the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 would be rescheduled to 2021. This conclusion was reached in order to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.

This decision was followed by a wave of cancellation and postponement of international sporting events. UEFA quickly postponed the European Championships to 2021, and the World Athletics Championships were moved from 2021 to 2022 to avoid competing with the Olympic Games. Other annual sports events such as the Tour de France and the tennis Grand Slam tournaments were postponed to later that year.

All elite sport stakeholders were severely affected by the lockdown. Athletes could not complete their usual training programs and tried to keep their physical shape from home, while some teams were working out together via video. However, for some athletes, training was their least concern because they were facing significant financial and psychological challenges. Sports clubs were also facing economic consequences, because a large part of their sponsorship, broadcast rights and ticket revenue disappeared due to the lack of competitive events. Similarly, large sports organizations not only had to reorganize their events, but also began negotiations with their partners to ensure their short-term financial future.

The IOC has financially supported its stakeholders through the postponement of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the operations of the NOCs, IFs and the wider Olympic Movement, and launched various campaigns to connect athletes with the public and foster support and solidarity among the entire Olympic community.

The need to build resilience in the face of the financial and economic consequences that will result from the COVID-19 pandemic will influence priority-setting among governments and enterprises, and the world of sport and the Olympic Movement is already trying to reinvent itself and has taken some interesting lessons from Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. As an example, the IOC has published the Olympic Agenda 2020+5, its new roadmap (based on 5 of these trends: solidarity, digitalization, sustainability, credibility, economic and financial resilience) that intends to make the Olympic Games fit for the future; safeguard the Olympic values; and strengthen the role of sport in society.

To learn more on the impacts of COVID-19 on the world of sports in general and on the Olympic Movement in particular, we recommend to start your research with the selection of publications and links on this page, among which we highlight “Sport and the Coronavirus crisis: special issue” by Brody J. Ruihley”, “The Tokyo postponement: lessons learned for the Olympic Movement” by Stephen Wilson and “Potentially prolonged psychological distress from postponed Olympic and Paralympic Games during COVID-19: career uncertainty in elite athletes” by Anders Håkansson.

Of course, this page contains just a selection of the resources available on this rich topic, so be sure to check out the link at the bottom of the page to the full list of resources.