Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports and exercise

Ying-Ying Wong, Ashley; Ka-Kin Ling, Samuel; Louie, Lobo; Ying-Kan Law, George; Chi-Hung So, Raymond; Chi-Wo Lee, Daniel; Chung-Fai Yau, Forrest; Shu-Hang Yung, Patrick

COVID-19 is a droplet-transmitted potentially fatal coronavirus pandemic affecting the world in 2020. The WHO recommended social distancing and human-to-human contact was discouraged to control the transmission. It has put many countries in a state of lockdown and sporting events (including the 2020 Olympics) have been affected. Participation in sports and exercise, typically regarded as healthy activities, were also debated. The local professional football leagues, governed by the Hong Kong Football Association, ultimately postponed all matches after much deliberation on the transmission risk for the spectators and on-field players. Large spectating crowds are well-known to be infectious hazards, but the infection risk for on-field players is less recognized. To address this question, we performed a small-scale investigation that showed, in a 90 min match, the average duration of close contact between players was 19 min and each player performed an average of 52 episodes of infection-risky behaviours. This suggests that the infection risk was high for the players, even without spectators. Aside from watching professionals exercise, many people opted to hike in the countryside during the weekends to avoid city crowds. This led to a widespread discussion on the issue of masked versus unmasked hiking. We performed a laboratory study to investigate the physiological effect of wearing a facemask during simulated hiking and found that it significantly elevated heart rate and perceived exertion. The clinical implication is that hikers need to realize masks increase the physiological burden, especially in those with multiple underlying comorbidities. Elite athletes, especially those training for the upcoming Olympics, needed to balance and reschedule their training regime since the risk of deconditioning versus the risk of infection was a genuine dilemma for themselves and their team. We described the multiple infection-control measures imposed by the national team training centre to help strike this balance. Amidst a global pandemic affecting millions; staying active is good, but staying safe is paramount.