Virtual ISSA 2020: The Consequences of COVID-19 for Women’s Sport

This virtual panel discussed the potential impacts of the coronavirus crisis on women's sport. When the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, the majority of sports leagues around the world were cancelled, suspended or postponed. While men’s leagues and championships are now subsequently able to return, the situation appears to be proceeding more slowly for women. There are good reasons to believe that the pandemic will disproportionately and significantly impact women’s sport and that those impacts could be long-lasting. Indeed, the pandemic seems to have exposed the veneer of genuine support for the development of women’s sport at professional and elite levels, with likely consequences for grassroots participation as well. The panel considered key questions about: 1) How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting women sport in different parts of the world and at different levels?; 2) What does it reveal regarding women’s place in sport and its presumed “progress” in recent years?; and 3) What will COVID-19 mean for the future of women’s sport, and what might sports governing bodies do differently to ensure the current crisis transforms the vastly unequal structures of sport for the better?