Just a week ago, the ball, tennis, paddle tennis and table tennis Federations requested to be able to train and compete because they were individual sports with “almost zero risk of contagion.” Now the Basque Sports Federations Associations have joined forces to go further. All of them support the authorization of the activity of all federated and school sports, alleging that their stoppage contributes to “the spread of Covid, the worsening of physical and mental health and the fall of a work activity”. In the same way, they defend that these restrictions demonstrate “ignorance of the fabric and functioning of the regulated and official activity.”
This request arises from an alliance between the Union of Basque Sports Federation and the Associations of Sports Federations of Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Álava. These four entities corroborate with data the great decrease in the performance of physical activity due to confinement and the latter restrictions, which prevent non-professional or semi-professional sports at club level. They also argue that “physical inactivity is a serious public health problem.” In this sense, they cite experts who guarantee that “physical inactivity is one of the main causes of at least 35 chronic diseases” or that “it is responsible for 13.4% of deaths per year in Spain, leading to ahead more than 52,000 lives ».
Likewise, they highlight that the paralysis of school and federated sports helps to spread the Covid. They base this statement on the fact that young people previously practiced sport in controlled spaces and periods, in smaller groups than in schools and many of them outdoors. Instead, current restrictions often urge children to practice sports on your own in parks and squares, without any kind of surveillance, or apply cleaning protocols, masks, or respect the maximum number of people, etc.
Regarding the earliest ages, they also consider that “School sport is a continuous training activity and its stoppage implies the loss of growth and continuous training”. For all these reasons, they request the resumption of school and federated sports activities, in order to reduce the risks of physical inactivity and exercise rigorously, respecting health precautions at all times. To do this, they opt for “the supervision of a staff that, on a voluntary basis, may be collaborating agents in the implementation and monitoring of health standards for the prevention of the pandemic caused by COVID-19,” they conclude.
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