Editorial

Abstract

The Coronavirus 2019 , is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It has had and continues to have devastating impacts on almost every aspect of life globally. The sports sector, in particular, being closely linked to travel and tourism, has experienced devastating impacts given that most of the world's global (and domestic) travel had come to a halt with travel bans, shutdowns, lockdowns and various other forms of travel restrictions. Travel had almost come to a standstill globally with cancellation of flights and events/ activities (Hoque et al. 2020).Chinazzi et al. (2020) and Hoque et al. (2020) assert that travel restrictions and social distancing were imposed and continue to be enforced globally primarily to curb and stop the spread of the virus, which remains a socio-economic and health threat. Sectors such as the sport industry are particularly impacted because they are associated with social gatherings in terms of consuming and participating in events and activities (Glebova et al. 2022;Parnell et al. 2020). Several sporting events and activities were and continue to be cancelled or postponed/ suspended, include-ing major sports events (the most notable being the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Games) as well as sport exhibitions and conferences.Gough (2020: 1) states that the COVID-19 pandemic had 'wreaked havoc to the sporting calendar'. It is also important to note that training was severely disrupted, that substantially impacts on athletes at different levels, as shown by Wiltshire et al. (2022) in relation to COVID-19 impacts on the economic viability sports sector and athletic performance. They caution that