Through the First Weekend

We are through the first weekend of the new normal and have come out the other side. Bearing in mind it was only on Thursday afternoon that our major sporting organisations called a halt to sporting events, gatherings and training sessions, it feels like a lot longer.
And yet with it only being 14 days since the first confirmed Irish case of Coronavirus, time itself no longer seems to be playing by the same rules.
Throughout Friday we carried stories of tournaments and events being postponed or cancelled. This week it will be the same.
Already the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon at the end of May has been called off, with the hope of rescheduling rather than any date set for its running.
March is the only month confirmed that we are sure there will be no activity but that seems like an ‘under review’ date that will be extended.
Today the organisers of the Heineken Cup will meet to make a call on the Quarter Finals due to be held on the first weekend of April. Nobody is expecting anything other than that they will be postponed.
Tomorrow will be D-Day for the Euro 2020 tournament as UEFA meets by video conference call to determine what will be the next steps for it and for the multiple European club leagues and tournaments that are already paused. Nobody thinks that it should be any other way though in a clinging to some sense of the way we used to be fans of Liverpool and Leeds United will be among those thinking a little more than most that a resumption and conclusion to the season at some point will be desired.
The Olympic Games has a little longer to make its call and Japanese authorities are clinging to a sense of optimism.
There were reports in China and Korea over the weekend of a gradual return to normal behaviours. Perhaps this takes six weeks of proper voluntary or enforced social distancing to slow the rampant progress of the virus and allow medical science treat it in while normal life resumes. If that is the case then maybe they are right.
It seems wrong to even be thinking of such matters as a celebration of sport at such a moment in our history but that in many ways is why it is important to do so.
We need a horizon to give us a sense that this will pass.
Sport is always a great escape from the troubles of the world. From young kids in barrios kicking a ball of rags to the fabled story of the football match that paused the first world war over 100 years ago, as a race, we like to gather around it, even if it only presents as a flickering candle.
Nobody expects that candle to be held up by any of the major European sporting events that will decide their next move in the next couple of days but we do need to keep hoping and keep believing that it will come at some point, and that most of us will be there to see it.