Sweden, among a handful of countries who imposed much lighter restrictions in an attempt to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, has stated that athletes will be able to return to normal training and competition. While the country’s ban on gatherings of over 50 people still applies, training can still occur as long as it meets this and other critieria.
The Swedish Public Health Agency announced that allowing the continuation of physical activity was key to maintaining health across the nation, meaning that gyms, swimming pools, and other facilities for training would remain open. While activities could still continue in these locations, it was advised that efforts be made to help minimize the potential of spread of the disease, especially during competition.
The steps advised to limit spread include keeping family members and other unneeded people off of the pool deck, restructuring of the training schedule to limit the number of athletes at the facility at one time, and eliminating the use of any form of training that may include close contact with others.
The Chairman of the National Sports Federation of Sweden, Björn Eriksson, also commented on the importance of allowing children to continue participating in sports and other activities.
“It is important that sport continues to be a fixed point for children and young people in a turbulent enviroment while adapting activities to the recommendations of the Swedish Public Health Agency.”
Despite avoiding the cancellation of many of the countries sporting events, the government is still taking steps to avoid the financial hardships associated with the disease. A support package of 500 Million SEK (just under $51 million USD) was approved for compensation of sports affected by the current pandemic. Sports Federations and associations can begin applying for shares of the support package beggining on May 1st.
This support can be used for the payment of coaches and other staff members. It also includes critieria to allow the payment of coaches who were working virtually since the beginning of the pandemic.
Sweden isn’t the first country to allow the resumption of training, although it may be the first to allow it on such a widespread scale. Late month the Netherlands announced that they would allow elite athletes to return to training within the country.
Sweden currently has 21,520 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 2,653 casualties attributed to the disease.
Covid=groupthink, much like Iraq war or Cuban missile crisis
As a person with far right politician beliefs I never thought I would say Sweden is handling anything the best. Hats off to you Sweden – I won’t mock your socialist views for at least the next 5 years.
Well I can tell you that I live in Sweden and the socialism we have here is working just fine!
I don’t know about socialism but your underachieving your mortality rate
FYFI
I don’t know about socialism but your underachieving you are mortality rate
2600 deaths for a population of 10 million.
If it were converted to the US it would be around 85,000. You can judge whether it is underachieving .
NZ pop 5 million : 20 deaths.
Australia pop 25 million 92 deaths ( subtract a few Germans from a cruise ship ).
Vietnam pop 80 million : 0 deaths .( border with China .) Vietnam is not Socialist , it is COMMUNIST!
Sometimes I’m not sure about the mathematical or political IQ of SwSw posters but I enjoy the comments .
Finland and Norway better keep its borders closed with Sweden.
Vietnam is not communist, there was never a communist country.
1975 April 30.. A Provincial Revolutionary Government was established following the fall of Sth Vietnam . I sat next to the daughter of the Sth Vietnamese Ambassador at school that say . I asked her what will she do . She said ‘ Vietnam is now Communist & we can never go back . I am going to take her view over yours.
Vietnam is still run under the 1 992 Constitution which commits to the central role of the Communist Party est in 1930. It is a Unitary Marxist -Leninist one party socialist republic . Vietnamese are very smart ppl & can adapt where they need but fact is fact . Ask your Viet vets if HoChiMinhs ‘Viet… Read more »
Your far right beliefs are breath of fresh air. We need more of those.
But politics aside, I propose that breaststroke rules be amended during the pandemic to allow for a single dry cough during the recovery phase. Underwater cough should still remain banned. I want Sweden to test that first since they are ahead with number of deaths among all Scandinavian countries and are not afraid to take chances.
Your attempt to be funny failed miserably
Downvotes do not bother me. I was not trying to be funny – I was criticizing Sweden for playing with people’s lives.
how do you know ( by first hand experience on your own on any viruses ) they are playing with people’s lives ? None ……just a mental opinion , nothing more .
Mental opinion?
As of now, 2,669 dead in Sweden, population 10 million.
As of now, 245 dead in Czech Republic, population 10 million.
Which one do you think gambled with human lives by not enforcing isolation/distancing?
Would you think differently if your 60 year old father died of this virus?
By the way, every opinion is Mental, unless you pull it out of you know where.
It will be interesting to see how the situation develops in Sweden. Having lighter restrictions they may have exposed most of the population to the virus and developed herd immunity. While the mortality rate seems high now, lets see what it is 6 months from now when there’s a larger testing sample. In other areas, where the shelter in place was more strict, they may be prepping themselves for a second outbreak where in the end the impact will be roughly the same.
Good comment. Two main reasons for sheltering in place is not to overwhelm heath care system (if you do not think some people died in New York because they did not receive proper care, then you are not paying attention) and to SAVE lives. We do not know if a cure, that will prevent people from dying, will be available this month, in 3 months, or maybe never. How about vaccine? Maybe it will be available in October, as some hope. Your end of game (possible) outcome will happen if no cure or vaccine can be found – otherwise, we can save lives. Let’s assume remdesivir test worked (instead of faking success as they did this week), then, Sweden wasted… Read more »
We really don’t need any political views on SwimSwam. Plenty of other outlets to express those.
exactly , people are too hooked on politics as leadership while not being able to dissociate with it when it counts .
No we just need less of that far left bs. The far right isn’t better or an antidote for that
How far —- like Nazi far?
This migh be the first time I upvoted you, Ol’Longhorn. You meant it as a joke, most likely, but I did not. Yesterday, one American patriots held Arbeit Macht Frei (also prominently displayed at the entrance of Auschwitz) sign while demonstrating against Illinois governor, who is a Jew. That tends to scare me and make me sad. My gradpa was taken to force labor to Germany (to be set free, according to Hitler) in April 1941. He survived because he was older and released before Nazi started killing them all, and becuase he was a Serb (Nazi’s hated Jews most, then Gipsies and Slavs) and not a Jew. So, asking a “far right” person if he was a Nazi is… Read more »