Covid Effects on Sports

How Has COVID-19 Affected Kids’ Sports and Outdoor Activities?

By Inshirah

The effects of COVID-19 have impacted the daily lives of countless kids in several different ways. Many kids who were involved in sports and outdoor activity before the pandemic have not been able to do so now.

Many of the activities and sports that kids like me used to be involved in can’t be held with Covid restrictions. This goes for any form of outdoor activity, whether it be playing sports or taking walks outside.

Since everyone has to stay six feet apart and wear masks many sports like football and basketball which need people to be near each other can’t be held and when they are held without following the Covid restrictions it can feel uncomfortable and even unsafe for some people.

Take me, for example, before the pandemic started I was on my school basketball team and I really enjoyed it. Since quarantine began my team wasn’t able to play together and although I could play at home with my brothers it just wasn’t the same without my team.

I conducted a survey on some middle school students who were involved in sports or outdoor activity that they enjoyed before the pandemic to find out how often they are involved in that activity now and my results are shown below.

Turns out that 50% of students surveyed reported that they have noticed a decrease in their involvement in these activities, and 1 out of 4 of students surveyed reported that they aren’t involved in these activities at all anymore due to the pandemic. Overall, the majority of students surveyed reported being less involved in these activities than they were before the pandemic.

Given the fact that kids should have at least sixty minutes of outdoor activity a day and the fact that 75% of students surveyed reported they are less involved in the sports or outdoor activity they were involved in before the pandemic the absence of sports and outdoor activities that many kids were getting their exercise from is also damaging to kids’ health.

But it’s not all bad, quarantine has also encouraged kids to try new outdoor activities with their family since we have so much time on our hands. For example even though I couldn't play basketball as much as I did before I started going on evening walks with my family and hikes with some friends which I honestly never really enjoyed before we were in this situation.