Covid-19, Sport and Society
Many of us, including the editors of this themed issue, watch or play sports, according to our individual preferences. As editors, we think that one of the most iconic representations of the situation of sport during the first phase of the SARS-CoV-2 (hereafter Covid-19) pandemic was not a particular picture but a sound, namely that of silence. That is the silence of the empty parks and sport-equipped areas during spring and fall 2020. The silence of closed sport clubs and facilities. The silence during the few organised and broadcasted sport events, in which the absence of the public generated a surreal background noise characterised by isolated player shouts or calls, or by the thud of the ball. This created such an offbeat atmosphere that most TV channels added pre-recorded typical sounds. There was also the silence that accompanied those, who have practised sports despite the prohibitions, often trying to escape poorly understood rules (as in the Italian case).