COVID-19, lockdown and (disability) sport

ABSTRACT

A number of recent Managing Sport and Leisure commentaries have explored how COVID-19 is touching sport. Our commentary adds to these discussions by considering COVID-19, lockdown and (disability) sport. This is especially pertinent given the positioning of disabled people as particularly “vulnerable” in relation to current political discourse. Four key points of discussion are focused upon. First, we explore how the media has attended to issues concerning (disability) sport during lockdown. Second, consideration is given to how sporting and physical activity opportunities have been promoted during lockdown. Third, we focus on the notion of inclusion and explore the ways in which this has thrived during lockdown. Fourth, attention is given to community (disability) sport post-lockdown and what this may mean for disability sport. We conclude by arguing that the future legacy of lockdown and COVID-19 will tell us much about how disabled people have really been embraced within sport.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• lockdown
• disability sport
• inclusion
• media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Throughout this commentary, we use the term “(disability) sport” for two reasons: (1) to signify occasions where discussions encompass sport generally as well as disability sports played by predominantly disabled people and (2) to make a conceptual point to denote that our understanding of “sport” in general does not exclude the presence of disabled people, and that “disability sport” itself is firmly a part of what “sport” in general represents. At other times, we use the term “disability sport”, and when doing this we are emphasising that discussions are specifically focusing on disability sport rather than sport more broadly.

2 The term furloughing refers to the government paying staff to take a leave of absence instead of organisations making them redundant.