Page 35 - Tom Steyer Issue

Game Off: COVID-19 shifts and disrupts sport and recreation pursuits
M
ax Blake joined the Carolina Hurricanes junior sled hockey team just a few months ago and fin-
ished a spectacular season-opening tournament. He scored eight goals in five games, including a hat trick (three goals in a single game) that left a positive impres- sion on coaches and teammates back in January.
He was excited to be fitting in with his new team because sled hockey was, quite simply, his thing.
Then the pandemic hit.
“It broke his heart,” said Max’s father, Bud Blake.
The global spread of COVID-19 and subsequent cance- lations and postponements of social activities has impacted the sport and recreation world drastically. Max’s sled hockey team was another victim, as his sea- son of tournaments was canceled.
The Blakes live in Knoxville, Tenn., and Max, who has spina bifida, has played sled hockey for three years. He practices locally with adults, and started playing travel sled hockey with a Nashville team. This season was his first playing with the Carolina team, based out of Char- lotte.
“Having spina bifida, he’s never in the spotlight,” Bud said. “And if he is in the spotlight, it’s always about going to this doctor appointment or that clinic. So with his disability, he doesn’t get in the spotlight much. I think sled hockey was the biggest thing for him as a child because he was a hero.”
COVID-19 has darkened that spotlight, unfortunately, forcing everyone to redirect their sport and recreation pursuits. Welcome to the new invisible barrier for peo- ple with disabilities during this season of social isolation and quarantining.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all people get at least 2.5 hours of aer- obic physical activity per week. The CDC also states that nearly half of adults with disabilities do not get any aerobic physical activity.
So when a pandemic chokes out recreation and sport activities, among the affected populations are those with disabilities and chronic disease or illness. Stories cover the spectrum from shifting recreational activities, redis- covering activities, or shutting them down altogether. COVID-19 has impacted everyone, but especially the
ABILITY 35