ANYONE FOR TENNIS?
One-size-fits-all approach to sporting restrictions is frustrating and self-defeating
WHEN Tánaiste Leo Varadkar was being interrogated on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland slot over the issue of mandatory quarantine, he replied to one sharpedged question with one of his own.
‘Why would you put someone from the Isle of Man into hotel quarantine when there is no Covid there?’ he reasoned.
His statement carried a compelling logic. Coming the day after the Government published the Living with Covid-19 plan labelled ‘The Path Ahead’ (alternative working title: ‘The Flight Path Ahead’), he argued that it made no sense to put everyone who arrived into the country into quarantine in a hotel if they had arrived from a country that had low transmission levels.
Example two? In light of new variants, it made no sense he said to treat South Africa the same as Iceland. For those still dreaming wistfully of a foreign holiday this summer, he even suggested the idea of ‘travel bubbles’ with a list of countries deemed to be safe.
When it comes to dealing with the vexed issue of entry and exit then, the Government clearly believes in a nuanced approach. One that is carefully calibrated to the needs of an evolving situation. One based on the level of risk of virus transmission.
So how is it that the same logic doesn’t apply to sport?
Imagine if Mike Ryan of the World Health Organisation and business magnate-turned-philanthropist and global health investor Bill Gates were put in a room together and asked to come up with a recreational game fit for a pandemic. It’s likely they would settle on the one which involves just two contestants, which is non-contact and which has a net between the two opponents so that at no point are they ever likely to trouble the recommended social distancing guidelines. The game which involves starting each point at a distance of at least 15 metres apart.
Anyone for tennis? Tennis might as well be the Isle of Man of sport.
Or take the Iceland of sport that is golf, where the simple act of swinging a club lends itself to social distancing. Those who like to link it to the phrase ‘a good walk spoiled’? Well, the clue is in the first three words – a good walk. It is all that and more to the 150,000 or so registered Golf Ireland members on this island.
Max out any timesheet with a four-ball for a standard 18 holes, and you have roughly 72 people at any one time in an outdoor setting of hundreds of acres. Risk level? Golf courses have the capacity to track and account for every member playing via an online timesheet.
Take athletics. Here’s marathon runner and coach Mick Clohisey: ‘What about sport? Especially for children. Spring approaching. Frustrating that outdoor noncontact sports like running still not allowed. This is a public health issue too. The importance of sport being brushed aside.’
And he made a point to stress that he was referring to the established practice of training in pods to comply with Covid restrictions.
That’s before getting to the team sports that would truly mobilise the country’s youth.
To take the Tánaiste’s logic, why would this Government treat tennis and golf and Gaelic games and soccer and rugby and judo the same? Why fail to differentiate between sports, never mind the needs of children and adults?
Last week, this column wrote about the pressing need for the return of non-contact training for juvenile sport, and the groundswell of support to get the next generation back active, in line with the return of schools when so many long-term warning lights are flashing. Not just in terms of physical health and playing dropout, but mental health.
There have been over 50 signatories from across the sporting spectrum to a letter to the Northern Ireland Executive in Stormont asking for the immediate resumption of youth sport. A petition directed at Taoiseach Micheál Martin by Darren Farnan and Damian Dowds of Burt GAA club in Donegal quickly gained over 1,000 signatories.
After officially taking up his role as GAA president during last Saturday’s remote Annual Congress, it was significant to see Larry McCarthy immediately add his voice: ‘Never has the idea of bringing fun back into our lives been more important than it is now. We do not need the occasion of a big match in Cork or Clones to bring fun back, we just need to get out on the field, whether that be in Ballymun, Bracknagh or Ballygalget.
‘I would respectfully ask the authorities that we be allowed to have activity for children in our clubs once schools have safely opened.
‘We showed last year that we can do this very safely and very effectively. Acknowledging that the circumstances are more onerous now, there is no doubt in my mind that we can do so again.
‘This will have a three-fold effect, it will get our children engaged in organised physical activity with their friends, it will allow the parents a slight relief from the stress of the pandemic, and it will bring fun back into many people’s lives. To the public health authorities, please give consideration to this request. We did it last year, we can do it again.’
His plea comes after the GAA showed the way for the Department of Education last summer by running Cúl Camps which catered for 70,000 juvenile participants.
Clinical psychologist Dr Niall Muldoon is the current Ombudsman for Children. In a powerful interview with Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ radio before the latest extended lockdown restrictions, he spoke in a very broad sense. Listen back. The picture painted is stark. It’s unflinching.
It is all about giving better voice to the next generation, to acting in the best interests of that generation by looking long-term, not just short term. Looking beyond the bare details of daily Covid fig ures. Particularly with regard to education and mental health.
In a broader sense, sport and physical exercise and activity can play their own parts.
One of the signatories of the letter to the Northern Ireland Executive is Armagh All-Ireland winner and coach Aidan O’Rourke, sports performance manager at Queen’s University.
‘Ask any parents and they’ll tell you the cost of their kids not playing sport right now,’ he said. ‘Disappearing personalities, children withdrawing entirely within themselves, right up to severe mental health, self-harm.
‘I’m not saying that sport would be a silver bullet to stop all that. But it could have been alleviated at least to some extent by giving them the structure of sport.’
It’s not about fixtures or competitions, just a very basic level of non-contact activity under established protocols.
Mary O’Connor, CEO of Federation of Irish Sport has already called on the Government to produce ‘a detailed roadmap’ on the reopening of sports so that their 81 national governing bodies can plan for a return ‘in a safe manner’.
It shouldn’t be about who has the biggest or best lobby group as certain sports see a season and more of involvement disappear.
After publishing its own path out of lockdown, UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden wrote a column with a strong message of support for grassroots sport: ‘There would be no better legacy of this Covid crisis than a fitter, healthier Britain’ insisting that ‘the return of children to sport has always been the priority’.
It would be interesting to see a vision for sport and a version of same from Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers. Across the board. From tennis to golf to team sports.
A vision for juvenile activity as much as elite adult activity.
The lack of nuance in the Government approach to sporting restrictions is frustrating and ultimately self-defeating; a fresh vision for sport and activity in Ireland is needed.
“The GAA’s Cúl Camps showed the way”
“A fresh vision for sport is needed now”