For athletes, their only alternative to train therefore was to train at home, with the limitations that this implies. In some countries like Spain, sport and physical activities were canceled because these were not considered as essential activities. During the lockdown period, the measures and restrictions varied from country to country.
One of the populations affected by the pandemic has been athletes, who also have experienced cancelation of important competitive events, restrictions to training, and disruption of everyday life. The risk of being infected by COVID-19 and/or passing the virus onto others, together with the sense of social isolation caused by the lockdown and quarantine, can escalate people’s anxiety and fear ( Rubin and Wessely, 2020). Research has reported a wide range of associated negative psychological responses such as anxiety and depression ( Harper et al., 2020 Taylor et al., 2020), as well as a decrease in emotional well-being ( Yang and Ma, 2020). The pandemic has put at risk people’s physical health and functioning, and also their psychological health and well-being ( Bakioğlu et al., 2020). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a health global issue, with millions of confirmed cases in many countries around the world ( Satici et al., 2020). As such, findings confirm the relevance of resilience to a key feature of athletes’ eudaimonic well-being and the importance of enhancing their autonomous goal striving. Results also support the hypothesized mediational role of autonomous goal motives in the relationship between resilience and subjective vitality during the lockdown. The findings suggest negative impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on athletes’ goal motives and eudaimonic well-being. However, changes in controlled goal motives negatively predicted changes in subjective vitality during lockdown. Resilience did not predict changes in athletes’ controlled goal motives. Path analysis, adjusting T2 measures for their corresponding T1 measures, showed that resilience significantly predicted changes in athletes’ autonomous goal motives, which then accounted for changes in subjective vitality. Growth modeling using hierarchical linear models revealed a significant decrease of autonomous goal motives and subjective vitality during the lockdown, but athletes did not show change over time in controlled goal motives. Around 6 months later into the lockdown period (T2), athletes’ goal motives and subjective vitality were assessed again. Approximately 4 months before the start of the lockdown in Spain (T1), athletes responded to a questionnaire assessing their resilience, goal motives, and subjective vitality. Participants were 127 Spanish university athletes aged between 18 and 34 years ( M = 21.14 SD = 2.77). The relationship of resilience to changes in subjective vitality was also determined, and changes in athletes’ goal motives were examined as potential mediators. This study examined the effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on changes in athletes’ reported eudaimonic well-being (subjective vitality) and goal motives (autonomous and controlled) over time (i.e., pre-lockdown and during lockdown). The challenging and disruptive situation could hold implications for their well-being. In sport specifically, athletes have had to deal with frustration of their objectives and changes in their usual training routines.
The lockdown resulting from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a huge impact on peoples’ health.