The rules for returning differ among counties, states and countries, but the athletic world is beginning to creep toward competition again
Members of the Mission Viejo Nadadores swim club share a laugh after practice on Wednesday, May 7, 2020, in Mission Viejo, Calif. The rules differ among counties, states and countries, but the athletic world is beginning to creep toward competition again
Image: Jenna Schoenefeld/The New York Times
The 18 swimmers entered the outdoor pool deck in a drawn-out procession, taking care to stay 10 feet apart from one another. On the walk to their individually assigned lanes, the Mission Viejo Nadadores team members glanced at the giant scoreboard.
On the screen where their successes and failures are usually illuminated, their coach, Mark Schubert, had keyed in a message: “May the new normal teach us to be grateful for the things the old normal taught us to take for granted.”
Across the United States and throughout the world, sports are slowly awakening from their two-month respite during the coronavirus pandemic. As countries start to ease lockdown restrictions aimed at stemming the spread of the contagion, soccer teams in Germany, Spain and Italy have resumed training in the hopes of resuming their seasons, professional golfers are eying a late spring return to competition, and touring tennis pros learned this week that an altered version of a season is in the works. Professional baseball began again in South Korea on Tuesday, some NBA training facilities may open Friday, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship and NASCAR plan to hold events this month without fans on-site.
But the sports world is a many-tentacled behemoth, and its return to life is characterized by uneven circumstances. While golfers living in some parts of the United States have had largely uninterrupted access to courses, counterparts in other states or in other countries, like Britain, have been reduced, at best, to hitting wedge shots into netting in their backyards.
There are tennis players, swimmers and track athletes who have access to personal facilities or reopened public spaces, while others in neighboring counties, states or countries remain severely restricted. Austria has opened Olympic training centers. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has not decided when it will open its centers.
©2019 New York Times News Service