The world of athletics has certainly faced some tough times due to COVID-19, with authorities having to shut off arenas, gyms and stadiums, as well as bringing seasons to an end early, leaving many athletes with the problem of a disrupted routine.
This alone can leave student athletes battling with their mental health. This presents the question – how have athletes managed to prosper through these times when such important aspects of their life such as diet, training schedules and contact with their coaches have been affected by the pandemic?
In order to gain insight into an athlete’s life during a pandemic, we looked within UEL, where Biomedical student and sports scholar Bret Benedict offered us his story on how he faired during lockdown. Bret is a third-year student at UEL getting ready to finish his course by the end of this year.
Bret competes in the 60m, 100m and 200m races, as well as running the 400m.
Mental and Financial Strain
Bret is usually a very outgoing, funny and cheerful person when he is out and around his friends, but he admitted to going through a tough time mentally while the country was in its first lockdown. He mentioned struggling with his mental health as the lockdown put him a tough financial situation:
“It affected my mental health because work stops, training stops so my income stops too, I can’t afford to pay for my training sessions…it ruins you and puts a strain on you mentally”
Due to being in such a difficult situation, Bret admitted to becoming complacent at times which frustrated him a lot, as he saw in himself a change of mindset. With the pandemic’s effects leaving him in some vulnerable places at times, it made him question his reasons to train and keep working towards a career in track and field.
“You don’t know what’s going on so it was very difficult because you are tempted to stay home instead of training.” He has also had to limit his goals, “I haven’t set goals like making Nationals because it is very unrealistic since we can’t compete.”
Adapting to the ‘New Norm”
While trying to figure out the best way to cope through these unprecedented times, Bret realised he had to focus his attention on his technique and improving his times while he has this opportunity away from competitions.
He stated the importance of turning the negatives, like having to interact with his coach over Zoom, recording his training sessions so that later he can send them to his coach and receive some feedback, into positives as Bret explained:
“I want to be healthy, increase my speed and improve my times.”
Staying Positive and Carrying On
Bret highlighted the importance of remaining positive and focused through struggle, as he offered some advice for other student athletes that may have experienced similar issues in recent times:
“Train now so you don’t fail later, take care of yourself because your time will come you just have to be focused on it!”
Looking forward into the future, Bret has a positive mindset. He seems very sure that his time is coming, he is just patiently waiting to seize his opportunities. It is nearly impossible to fault Bret’s character and his will and drive to succeed as an athlete.
While things remain uncertain for the future of student athletes, scholars like Bret will be working hard no matter the circumstances, in order to hit the ground running when competitions finally does return.
