Sports Medicine Practice during COVID-19 Pandemic - A "New Normal"

An investigation of fear of COVID-19 status in university student athletes from different sports associated with contact

“…Therefore, in the current crisis, it is vital to identify individuals from different groups and different populations susceptible to psychological disorders so that the mental health of general population could be maintained and improved with appropriate approaches [64]. Setting goals to reduce and cope with emotions such as fear, worry and anger and psychological effects such as stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, insomnia, suicidal thoughts and depressive disorders, and similar coping strategies such as maintaining physical activity of different intensity (mild, moderate and severe) and reducing inactivity and maintaining social relations with teammates, relatives and friends via phones or video calls proved to be important to protect the mental health of athletes [20,33,37,55,78,[82][83][84][85][86][87][88].…”

“…Outbreaks affect athletes in protected football, wrestling, rugby, soccer, nature and adventure sports, swimming, triathlon, athletics, trekking, gymnastics, basketball, fencing and many more, as well as their coaches, other support staff and audiences. Negativities in the living conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as isolation, the ceasing of training routines, the cancellation or postponement of the matches and major sports events, the non-synchronization of the resumption of the competitions in different countries, the re-planning of the competition programs, the estrangement from the teams or the sports communities, the low quality of communication with coaches and lack of social support affecting both their private and sports lives could have negative results on athletes' emotional and mental health and well-being [5,[33][34][35][36].…”