The fans came back, and even if their money was no good at arenas and stadiums, their credit cards and payment apps certainly were. (More Sports News)
Though the sports we watch brought with them a façade of 바카라back to normal바카라 as the pandemic-altered 2021 came to a close, a new reality took root this year: Every game, every practice, every season is a positive test or outbreak away from being postponed or compromised or canceled.
Nobody can take any of this for granted anymore. That바카라s one of the many ways the COVID-19 pandemic carved away at the 바카라old normal바카라 in 2021, a year in which sports came back from the total shutdown the coronavirus triggered in 2020 바카라 but not quite in the way we remembered.
Take March Madness. After being scrubbed in 2020, the college hoops extravaganza returned.
But even the term 바카라March Madness바카라 lost a bit of its fun-loving insouciance when, thanks to a video posted on social media by Oregon바카라s Sedona Prince, the inequities between the men바카라s tournament, which used the moniker, and the women바카라s, which did not, were spelled out in stark terms.
COVID-19 forced the NCAA to hold the entirety of both tournaments in one city 바카라 the men in Indianapolis, the women in San Antonio 바카라 and the ability of the players, and the media, to compare the events side by side, apples to apples, forced the NCAA to confront the ugly reality that, Title IX be damned, it does not treat the women as equals to the men.
That led to a gender-equity study that called for a number of changes 바카라 in how the NCAA budgets for the tournaments and, yes, in what it calls them. The 바카라March Madness바카라 brand now belongs to the women, too.
In another change with roots in the pandemic, the days of elite athletes being judged solely on the titles they win, the points they score or the medals they bring home appear numbered 바카라 if not gone for good.
SIMONE BILES TOKYO 2020 WITHDRAWALÂ
The face of that movement was gymnast Simone Biles, who, like so many other Olympians, extended her training an additional 12 months, while also enduring a year more of scrutiny and pressure in the leadup to the delayed Tokyo Games.
Overwhelmed by it all, Biles stepped away in the middle of the gold-medal team competition, and in doing so, changed the conversation for the rest of the Olympics, and the rest of sports. 바카라We also have to focus on ourselves, because at the end of the day we바카라re human, too,바카라 Biles said shortly after her withdrawal.
The words shouldn바카라t have needed saying, but they did. Combined with similar expressions from tennis champion Naomi Osaka, they slapped an exclamation point on a long-under-the-radar discussion about athletes and mental health. Not every change or gain or loss in the 2021 return to sports had to do with COVID-19.
TIGER WOODS' CAR ACCIDENTÂ
Tiger Woods was in a scary one-car accident in February that could바카라ve spelled the end of his competitive playing days. His leg reconstructed after the crash, Woods, who turns 46 on New Year바카라s Eve, conceded his days of being a week-to-week contender 바카라 or a contender at all 바카라 in top-level golf could be over.
DRUG SCANDAL
After a jumbled year in horse racing, the calendar returned to normal in 2021, but the sport did not. Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit바카라s victory was tainted by a drug scandal, then in December, the horse died during a training run 바카라 a tragic series of events that underscored the drug (and other) problems long embedded in that sport.
SPORTS BETTINGÂ FLOURISHED
Elsewhere in the world of legalized sports gambling, the big-time American leagues all completely did away with the long-held charade that their games were being consumed simply for the fun of it.
As sports betting continued to grow and become legal in more states, it mushroomed into a $150 billion business, by conservative estimates. Leagues such as the NFL, which for decades pretended gambling had no place in its game, went all-in and actively embraced some of the biggest sportsbooks as big-money sponsors.
That gave fans another way to engage in the games they love, while giving the leagues a new source of revenue and a new way to capture eyeballs. All good, it seems, especially given that the leagues, at least on the surface, have set aside the old worries about game-fixing, corruption and integrity that, for decades, made them reluctant to accept full-blown wagering.
NEW EXPERIENCE
And while legalized wagering is changing the experience of watching a game, COVID-19 is changing the experience of going to one.
The typical security check fans encounter upon entering most arenas now includes a request for proof of vaccine and/or a negative PCR test. Masks are required in some venues. Cash transactions and paper tickets are becoming things of the past. Contactless payments are in.
All this, of course, is assuming the game is even going on. The slow trickle of positive tests and team outbreaks that lightly but consistently disrupted the sports calendar through the spring and summer turned into a more steady stream as Christmas approached and the omicron variant of the virus spread.
Practices were canceled. Games were called off. Teams and leagues tried clamping down with more stringent vaccine and testing rules.
All was being done in hopes of keeping things moving along 바카라 keeping the fans happy, the players healthy, the revenue flowing and keeping on with 바카라business as usual.바카라 But if nothing else, what the return to sports taught us all in 2021 is that no such thing exists anymore.
