By Matilde D’afflitto, year 12
As a whole, the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted people across the globe. The lockdown disrupted individuals of their daily practices and lives, creating an overall sense of uncertainty. In the area of sports, many athletes were unable to follow their training habits and routines due to the lockdown, but did the lockdown directly affect their athletic performances in the long run? Did it affect their overall motivation in the sport?
After speaking with a few LGB track and field athletes, we noticed that in some cases, the lockdown had a bigger effect than expected.
As a track and field athlete, do you think the Covid-19 pandemic has affected your overall motivation and athletic performance in this sport?
“ I believe that Covid-19 has had a large toll on my overall performance in track and field, not only physically but also mentally. An example which comes to mind are the recent competitions that the team has participated in. As a whole, we noticed that our age group had significantly lower results than our age groups in the same competition a few years ago. However, I don’t think it has to do with our own physical abilities, but because of the break we had to take during the pandemic.” – Gaia Sanchez Santos, Year 12
“ As a track athlete, the Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected my motivation since I was not able to train a lot in quarantine. Despite trying to do track outdoors, it was hard on the one hand since I had no coach and therefore not much guidance on what to do, but on the other hand, it was nowhere near the same experience as it is with my coaches and my friends! After the lockdown and lack of training, coming back I noticed that my performances had declined, and not to mention that my sense of competition also diminished due to many competitions being cancelled…” – Soraya Janoudi, Year 10
“ During quarantine and the lockdown, I was still training, however, I was more focused on doing fitness rather than specifically running, so this possibly could have affected my performance. However, my motivation did not change, I was still eager to get back to the routine and training habits.” – Alix Dufour, Year 13.
We also got the chance to talk to one of the track coaches, and see his point of view regarding the performance of the team:
Do you think the pandemic and quarantine affected your own athletes’ performances and motivation?
“ Alors si le Covid a affecté les performances, oui quand même on doit le constater. Maintenant c’est gommer mais au retour de la quarantaine on a constaté un gros déficit et cela a mis un peu de temps à se combler. Au niveau de la motivation, non, parce que les groupes au Track and Field ont augmenté donc je pense que tous les athlètes étaient contents de reprendre, mais la seule chose qu’on a constaté c’est que beaucoup d’enfants n’ont pas eu l’opportunité de faire du sport pendant la pandémie, et cela est bien dommage !” – Loris, Coach (original)
English translation:
“ So if Covid has affected performances, yes we have to acknowledge it. By now we have pretty much overcome this but coming back from quarantine, we observed a large decline in performances and it definitely took some time to make up for it. Nevertheless in terms of motivation, no, because the groups in Track and Field have increased, so I think all the athletes were happy to be back, but the only thing we noticed was that a lot of children didn’t have the opportunity to play and practice sports during the pandemic, and that’s a shame!”
