Never would I have thought one little virus would spread so quickly and cause so much panic. Everything from colleges to NCAA March Madness has been temporarily shut down or canceled. Because of this, I thought it was only right to talk about how the coronavirus is also affecting my blog topic, running!
First, I feel like I should give a little history of the coronavirus for those who aren’t as educated about it. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the new novel coronavirus that emerged in China in December of 2019. Since it is so new, they are still trying to learn exactly how it is spreading, but it is believed to be spread from person to person in close contact. The symptoms include cough, fever, and shortness of breath. The reason why everyone is freaking out is that it can be deadly. There have been 29 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. (found this information on March 11 so it could be higher now). It’s also very scary as there is no vaccine yet and the only prevention methods involve frequent hand-washing, coughing into the bend of your elbow, and staying home when you are sick.
This is not only affecting running but many other sports as well. For example, the NCAA March Madness is now only allowing immediate family and players to be there to watch the game. This is costing the program thousands of dollars, but they are doing it for the safety of the players and the American people. Also, the NBA has gone on immediate shut down due to a Utah Jazz player, Rudy Golbert, testing positive for the coronavirus. The quarantine period for those who believe they may have been exposed to COVID-19 is 14 days. Players on teams the Jazz have played in the past 10 days have been asked to self-quarantine.
With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics less than six months away, the fast-spreading coronavirus is prompting several sports to relocate or cancel events originally scheduled for China. Right now, however, the games are still on as planned, but that could change at any moment. They could postpone it for a year, reschedule it later in the year to hopefully avoid the sickness from spreading more, or move it to a different country where the outbreak isn’t as bad.
So how is all of this affecting running? First, the World Athletics Indoor Championship, the pinnacle of track and field’s winter season, has been pushed back one year due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The indoor championship was scheduled for March 13-15 in Nanjing, China but is now being postponed until 2021. All the hard work the athletes put into training for this meet and now it gets shut down. More relevant to high schoolers, a lot of track and field meets around the US are being canceled due to the fear of having a lot of people in close contact with one another. Personally, I am praying that my indoor state meet doesn’t get canceled, but at this point, who knows!
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