PRAGUE, June 13, 2020 - Czech Republic is successfully coping with the easing of restrictions following the lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sports competitions are slowly starting up again.
The first symptoms of the disease appeared in our country in early March. The State of Emergency declared by goverment on March 12 practically stopped ordinary life with very strict restrictions. It ended after 66 days on May 17. Many restrictions still remain but the first plans concerning the possibility of returning to normal life, also in sports, are underway.
Fortunately, according to available information, there is no victim among the members of our Sports Journalists Association and also the limited number of confirmed cases among athletes ended up with successful recoveries of those infected.
Of course the pandemic had a huge impact on the whole society and sports journalists also had to deal with the economic consequences. For freelancers goverment secured a special contribution of 25.000 Crowns (approx. 1000,EUR) per month during the state of emergency. Employees, during the period of complete restrictions on sports, lockdown and complulsory work from home, were still entitled to full payment and certain special gurantees from employers.
From April 20 as part of the gradual resumption of sports activities (running, cycling, individual outdoor training) was in effect, but exclusively in isolation and with face mask covering the nose and mouth.
During spring most sports ended their regular competitions often without declaration of champions but the two highest football leagues decided to finish the 2019-20 season. In May joint trainings were allowed and some other sports like tennis and golf also resumed. Completion of football competitions began on May 23 and in the last week of May the first tennis tournament took place in Prague with excellent participation, especially in the women category (Petra Kvitova won).
Everything happens without any spectators and under strict epidemiological supervision – at first there could be only 100 and then a maximum of 300 people together in the whole venue. Athletes finally started their outdoor season on June 1 – over 17.000 athletes of all age categories took part in a brilliantly prepared "Together on Start" project in 173 venues all over the country. Top stars on the three main meetings brought some surprisingly good results despite the previous long training outage.
The limit for the number of people in a venue was increased to 500, and on June 8, the Josef Odlozil Memorial, an annual track and field, took place. Thanks to the agreement concerning re-opening the borders with Slovakia and Austria, foreign athletes also participated, for the first time since March.
Sports and sports journalists must respect effects of recent months and we are afraid that we would barely return to the former sports life by the end of year. After many weeks and months of complete freezing and isolation, the certain shift in the perception of sports within society, is understandable.
Current positive progress and expected speed return of travel possibilities (at least within European Union) give us hope for more significant return to regular cooperation with colleagues from other active organization of sports journalists especially at events postponed due to the pandemic.
