Securing Health and Safety at Major Sporting Events

Athlete health and safety at large sport events: the development of consensus-driven guidelines

British Journal of Sports Medicine ◽

10.1136/bjsports-2020-102771 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. bjsports-2020-102771

Author(s):

Margo Mountjoy ◽

Jane Moran ◽

Hosny Ahmed ◽

Stephane Bermon ◽

Xavier Bigard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Translation ◽

Action Plan ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Healthcare Services ◽

International Federation ◽

Medical Services ◽

Local Context ◽

Sporting Events ◽

Medical Risk ◽

Sport Events

All sport events have inherent injury and illness risks for participants. Healthcare services for sport events should be planned and delivered to mitigate these risks which is the ethical responsibility of all sport event organisers. The objective of this paper was to develop consensus-driven guidelines describing the basic standards of services necessary to protect athlete health and safety during large sporting events. By using the Knowledge Translation Scheme Framework, a gap in International Federation healthcare programming for sport events was identified. Event healthcare content areas were determined through a narrative review of the scientific literature. Content experts were systematically identified. Following a literature search, an iterative consensus process was undertaken. The outcome document was written by the knowledge translation expert writing group, with the assistance of a focus group consisting of a cohort of International Federation Medical Chairpersons. Athletes were recruited to review and provide comment. The Healthcare Guidelines for International Federation Events document was developed including content-related to (i) pre-event planning (eg, sport medical risk assessment, public health requirements, environmental considerations), (ii) event safety (eg, venue medical services, emergency action plan, emergency transport, safety and security) and (iii) additional considerations (eg, event health research, spectator medical services). We developed a generic standardised template guide to facilitate the planning and delivery of medical services at international sport events. The organisers of medical services should adapt, evaluate and modify this guide to meet the sport-specific local context.

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Forecast of the COVID-19 trend in India: a simple modelling approach

10.21203/rs.3.rs-502990/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Haitao Song ◽

Guihong Fan ◽

Shi Zhao ◽

Huichen Li ◽

Qihua Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Model Simulation ◽

Current Trend ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Wave Pattern ◽

Mortality Data ◽

Local Elections ◽

Sporting Events ◽

Epidemic Size ◽

New Variant ◽

Short Period

Abstract By February 2021, the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in India had been relatively mild in terms of total reported cases and deaths. Surprisingly, the second wave in early April becomes devastating and attracts worldwide attention. On April 30, 2021, India became the first country reporting over 400,000 daily new cases. Multiple factors drove the rapid growth of the epidemic in India and caused a large number of deaths within a very short period. These factors include a new variant with increased transmissibility, a lack of preparations exists national wide, and health and safety precautions poorly implemented or enforced during festivals, sporting events, and state/local elections. Moreover, India's cases and deaths are vastly underreported due to poor infrastructure, and low testing rates. In this paper, we use the COVID-19 mortality data in India and a mathematical model to calculate the effective reproduction number and to model the wave pattern in India. We propose a new approach to forecast the epidemic size and peak timing in India with the aim to inform mitigation in India. Our model simulation matched the reported deaths accurately and is reasonably close to results of serological study. We forecast that the IAR could reach 43% by June 13, 2021 under the current trend, which means 532,629 reported deaths with a 95% CI (552,445, 513,194) ie., double the current total deaths. Our approach is readily applicable in other countries and with other type of data (e.g. excess deaths).

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Organizing Health Care Services for the 2017 “Athens Marathon, The Authentic:” Perspectives on Collaboration among Health and Safety Personnel in the Marathon Command Center

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine ◽

10.1017/s1049023x19004722 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (05) ◽

pp. 467-472

Author(s):

Angeliki Bistaraki ◽

Konstantinos Georgiadis ◽

Demetrios G. Pyrros

Keyword(s):

Health Care Services ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Interagency Collaboration ◽

Sporting Events ◽

Mass Gatherings ◽

Care Services ◽

Documentary Analysis ◽

Grand Total ◽

Open Coding ◽

Command Center

AbstractIntroduction:Mass gatherings pose unique challenges for interorganizational collaboration. The “Athens Marathon, The Authentic” is a 42,195m (26.2mile) race with approximately 18,000 runners that increases annually. On the same day, additional races take place and a grand total of more than 50,000 runners fill the city center of Athens, Greece. Responding effectively to unexpected incidents requires comprehensive planning, clear decision-making structure, and effective collaboration. Nonetheless, there is limited empirical evidence to support interagency collaboration in mass gatherings.Purpose:This study used the 2017 Athens Marathon and related races as the empirical setting to examine how interagency collaboration was perceived among the multiple public health and safety professionals involved in the marathon command center.Methods:Data comprised 10 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with key informants, direct observations of meetings and the event itself, and documentary analysis. Open coding and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data.Results:Findings indicated four key components of interagency collaboration in such an event: organizational culture, team synthesis, on-site spatial planning, and the usage of radio-amateurs.Conclusion:This study outlined the factors that shaped interagency collaboration in the context of a mass event. Practical implications arising from this study may inform the ways organizers of marathons and other mass sporting events can engage in effective partnerships and joint working.

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