Abstract
Interest in sport cyberpsychology has become more popular over the last decade, primarily due to the increased use of technology and the online world, including social media, within sport settings (Hurley, 2018). In 2020, this became even more apparent for many athletes, their support teams and their sport organisations, when their professional and social worlds became cyber-dominated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many challenges were encountered by: (i) the athletes, in their efforts to remain active and well during this time when all competitions were cancelled and (ii) the healthcare professionals, working with these athletes, in their efforts to continue to support the athletes, when severe travel restrictions and social distancing were in place for considerable periods of time. The purpose of this paper, using a narrative review process, is to present and scrutinise an array of Internet interventions, remote psychological supports and applications (apps) that the athletes and their support personnel used to help them meet their physical, social, and emotional needs during the pandemic. The beneficial and restrictive features of these online options will be presented. Two main themes will be considered in order to focus this discussion, namely, (i) the potential physical and mental opportunities and challenges using the online world extensively during this time presented for the individuals working in sport and (ii) suggestions for how such online interventions used by the athletes, their coaches and sport science personnel during the pandemic may be maintained in some positive ways into the future, to help the athletes prepare for their upcoming competitions, their training and their future careers when they retire from elite sport.
Highlights
Competing at major sport events, such as an Olympic Games, are often the culmination of years of preparation and competition for many athletes
Increased sedentary behaviours [see Chtourou et al (2020) for a comprehensive review of the importance of physically activity during the pandemic], poorer dietary choices and unhealthy levels of alcohol consumption are coping strategies frequently linked with lower levels of physical and psychological well-being (Ingram et al, 2020; López-Bueno et al, 2020) and like many groups during the pandemic, athletes may have employed some of these coping strategies when prevented from training daily with their peers in their typically disciplined environments
Within the general population, for which athletes make up a proportion, increased levels of domestic abuse, violence and mental health distress, including suicide rates, have been reported throughout the pandemic (Schinke et al, 2020)
Summary
Competing at major sport events, such as an Olympic Games, are often the culmination of years of preparation and competition for many athletes. The challenges of using such technology can include: (i) the pressure it potentially places on athletes who may not feel comfortable recording themselves on camera, (ii) the sense they may have that their training is always being observed and scrutinised rather than them being trusted to complete various sessions without such objective video evidence (Ogden, 2011), and (iii) the feelings of guilt or disappointment they may experience at not ‘being perfect’ in their execution of their skills when they watchback the video evidence of their performances (Middlemas and Harwood, 2017; Harris, 2018) These are all issues that individuals supporting athletes should be aware of and discuss with them in advance of requiring or encouraging such video recordings of athletes’ training sessions. This approach is more likely to help maintain the desirable ‘facilitative’ sport environment, where athletes are challenged and are wellsupported (Sarkar, 2018)
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