Will Your Soccer Club Ever Meet Again? A Guide to Outdoor Sports This Summer.
By: Christie Aschwanden
Tags: Test Gym, Sports, Health, Tennis, Basketball

Will Your Soccer Club Ever Meet Again? A Guide to Outdoor Sports This Summer.

The risk factors around tennis, swimming, basketball, running races, and more

Photo: Jeffrey F Lin/Unsplash

Social distancing and lockdowns have shattered racing plans and competition schedules for many athletes — pros and weekend warriors alike. The Boston Marathon is canceled. The Tour de France has been postponed, and pro and amateur sporting events from soccer tournaments to triathlons have been put on hold.

But this weekend, one event is bucking the cancellation trend: a 5K Spartan obstacle course race in Jacksonville, Florida. “We have procedures in place to make a Spartan event safer than going grocery shopping, going to Starbucks, or going in an elevator,” Spartan race founder Joe De Sena told Obstacle Racing Media. “We are expecting 4,000 Spartans per day for this event.”

Participants are encouraged to bring friends and family to the race. Social distancing will be required, and racers will start in waves, with 24 racers starting every five minutes. Water obstacles will be removed, and participants and volunteers will be screened for Covid-19 symptoms and subjected to a touch-free temperature check.

“Nothing has changed. The virus hasn’t changed. Our arsenal of treatments haven’t changed. Our biggest weapon right now is our behavior.”

The prospect of assembling thousands of people for a recreational sporting event worries public health experts. “Right now is not the time for these large gatherings,” says Syra Madad, special pathogens specialist at NYC Health + Hospitals. Communities may be opening up again, she says, but it’s important to understand that the risks of Covid-19 remain. “Nothing has changed. The virus hasn’t changed. Our arsenal of treatments haven’t changed. Our biggest weapon right now is our behavior.”

According to the Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool created at Georgia Tech, there’s a greater than 96% chance that there will be someone with Covid-19 at an event with 4,000 people. The Spartan race is taking place just after Florida set a new single-day record for coronavirus cases since reopening — 1,495 new cases reported on June 5. (The previous record was 1,416 new cases, on April 17.)

Even with precautions like hand sanitizing, staggered starts, and masks for race officials, the size of an event like this is just too risky, says Zachary Binney, PhD, an epidemiologist at Emory University. “Oh, you’re doing hand sanitizing and social distancing? Whoopee! You’re still unnecessarily getting several thousand people together,” he says.

What about smaller events?

It might be possible to have smaller events if certain conditions are met, says Gretchen Snoeyenbos Newman, MD, an infectious disease physician at the University of Washington.

The acceptable size will depend on local rules and what’s happening with case numbers in the area. If the event is held in a community with very few cases and falling numbers, it might be possible to have a small outdoor sporting event if organizers check participants for symptoms and fever and are aggressively ensuring that people remain six feet apart and aren’t touching shared objects or surfaces.

The risk posed by any particular activity, sporting events included, comes down to a few important factors: proximity to other people, the intensity of the exposure (breathing hard and talking loudly increases the risk of spreading respiratory droplets), and time.

Even if it’s outdoors, basketball is high risk, because you’re throwing a ball back and forth and breathing hard in close proximity to one another.

Here’s what that means for you: Practice good hand hygiene, wear a mask when you are standing around with other people, keep six feet between you and everyone else, and minimize the duration of any close contact.

Among the biggest and most challenging risks posed by athletic events is not the physical activity, but the milling around that can happen before and after an event, Snoeyenbos Newman says. It can be hard to remain vigilant about social distancing when you’ve got post-event fatigue and are wandering around the vendor tents, and it’s easy to forget to not share a water bottle with a friend or give someone a high-five.

A sport-by-sport breakdown

If you want to engage in outdoor sports with other people (other than an organized event where you’ll come into contact with strangers), one good strategy to lower the risk is to find a partner you trust who has been socially distancing and limiting interactions with other people, Madad says. If the risk in your area is low, you might also select a small circle of trusted friends to do team sports with and agree on terms about how you’ll reduce your exposure to Covid-19 when you’re not together, Binney says.

Tennis

The rules about tennis vary across the country right now, but outdoor courts are opening up in many communities. If you’re sweating and touching your mucous membranes and then touching the ball, you could potentially spread the infection on the tennis ball, Madad says. In New York’s Nassau County, county executive Laura Curran announced that courts there would be opening up, but players are asked to bring their own balls so they can avoid touching their opponent’s balls. “You can kick their balls, but you can’t touch them,” Curran said, adding, “I’m going to blush.” The sport’s governing body, the United States Tennis Association, has issued some recommendations that include staying six feet apart, washing hands before and after playing, and avoiding touching your face after handling a ball, racquet, or other equipment. The USTA guidelines don’t suggest using separate balls, but they do recommend using a racquet or foot to pick up balls or return them to your opponent. (You’ll have to use hands to serve, however.)

Basketball

Even if it’s outdoors, basketball is high risk because you’re throwing a ball back and forth and breathing hard in close proximity to one another, Binney says. It’s almost impossible to play a normal game without getting close enough to breathe on other players. “I wouldn’t recommend recreational league basketball right now,” Binney says. If you really must play, do it one-on-one with a member of your household, or if you can’t do that, you could consider blending with another household that would give you enough players. But really, you need to ask yourself if this is really necessary, he says.

Soccer

Soccer is lower risk than basketball because you’re not touching the ball and there’s less tendency to get in one another’s faces, Madad says. Still, it’s not quite low risk. “You’re spending 90 minutes in close contact with other players,” Binney says. Not all of that time is spent within the breathing range of others, and if you can reduce the amount of time you’re in close range, that helps, he says. But it’s probably best to kick the ball around with a trusted household member or friend, rather than compete in a game or tournament.

Rock climbing

Indoor gyms are a pretty high risk right now, but outdoor climbing can be relatively low risk if you take some precautions. When you’re belaying someone on a route, you’re naturally distancing, so as long as you stay sufficiently apart the rest of the time (no lounging about at the crag), your risk is pretty low, Snoeyenbos Newman says. The Access Fund, a climbing advocacy group, has issued Covid-19 guidelines that recommend staying close to home to be respectful of vulnerable gateway communities, washing your hands before and after, and going out with only a single partner to reduce your social contact. They also urge climbers to “dial it back a notch” to reduce the risk of accidents and injury that might require the help of search and rescue teams.

Running

Running by yourself outside is low risk. “People should absolutely be going out and running,” Binney says. Running in a small group is pretty low risk, too, if you maintain the social distance between one another and don’t share drinks or equipment, he says. Be careful to avoid hanging around too close to one another before or after the run. Running with the same group of people is safer than running with different people all the time. The idea here is to limit your social contact to a small group as you start leaving the house again.

Bicycling

Cycling is one of the safest things you can do, because you’re outside and there’s lots of airflow, Snoeyenbos Newman says. It’s okay to ride with others if you take some precautions: Keep some distance between one another, and stay out of the other rider’s slipstream to avoid coming into contact with their heavy breaths and snot or other respiratory emissions. Don’t pass water bottles or food back and forth or share equipment like pumps.

Swimming

There’s very little risk of getting Covid-19 from water. Whether you’re at the beach or doing laps in a pool or competing at a swim meet, the danger with swimming comes from interacting with other people around the water, Snoeyenbos Newman says. “Pools tend to get pretty tight physically,” she says, and showers and locker rooms are confined spaces, so therefore risky. Swimming laps in a way that you’re avoiding contact with other swimmers is low risk. Holding a swim meet where competitors are milling around before or after their event is much more risky, she says. You probably want to avoid the kiddie pool, Madad says. Youngsters are notorious for pooping in the pool, and the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been found in fecal matter. It’s not clear how much it spreads this way, but why take chances?