Part of the overall push to start normal activities in American culture has of course been to bring back organized sport, and we’re starting to see signs of competition picking up again. NASCAR held a race at Darlington this week, and Major League Baseball eyes a July opening. Then there are youth sports, which some states will allow to happen as early as the end of the month.
Pat Toomey, a Republican senator from Pennsylvania, weighed in on the matter with a discussion he hosted today with sporting officials, athletes, and a doctor.
But is it a good idea to be starting up youth sports so quickly when we’ve seen so many summer events like Wimbledon, the British Open, and the Olympics either moved or outright canceled due to coronavirus? Not to mention the analysis by scientists that the virus hasn’t left and could exacerbate again come fall. How will youth games be conducted: do the athletes get tested as vigorously as major leaguers are expected to? Will there be spectators in attendance? In Texas, as KPRC reports, the proclamation suggests that it will be left up to the teams to decide. Finally, is it really fair to the kids that they end up being guinea pigs in this experiment to debunk science?
Perhaps that last question is not for me to answer. One thing is for certain, a lot more variables are at play here than just people wanting sports again. Dismissing this crisis makes it that much harder to fight it.