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This is why many skaters who keep up with covid and know it isn't over and can't/don't want to risk it have retired, myself included. It really sucks, I still haven't really accepted that I will likely never play roller derby again (despite knowing I have quite a few more years in me, I am only 30 and was really just hitting my stride in 2020) because other people don't care who they pass a highly disabling virus to. When WFTDA abandoned the RTP with pretty much nothing in its place, I figured this sort of behavior was inevitable and I hate to see I was right. It kind of seems like every tournament is a super spreader, based on my social media feed at least.
What sucks is that requiring kn95 or better masks and running a few air cleaners is inexpensive and would mitigate A LOT of the risk but it'd interfere with the "back to normal" cosplay so it won't be done. I worry a lot about what repeat infections are going to do to the sport long term, the harm is cumulative and it's not sustainable.
We've talked this same topic in this subreddit many times, but I feel like it's worth mentioning this stuff again:
I caught late 2019 / early 2020 and I went from skating top 10 MRDA to unable to hang with the intermediates and I'm getting worse with time thanks to Long Covid. I switched to reffing and at this point jam reffing has me pushing my physical limits, so I'm probably about to lose that too.
My understanding is your risk of long covid increases as you contract it over and over. I know a lot of folks are like "can't be scared forever, gotta go back to normal". I'm not saying stay scared, but I am saying normal might should look a little different. I go out, go to derby events, concerts, take flights, all kinds of stuff that puts me in enclosed crowded spaces, but I mask. I haven't caught it again. Yeah that's just personal anecdote, but at the same time masks and air purifiers are pretty easy to implement.
There is very much an element of feeling abandoned and betrayed by the sport, I won't lie. I was my league's covid safety officer and as I was doing my best to come to terms with the fact that my career was over, I also had league mates constantly up my ass asking me to ease up the rules (which were already more lenient on account of our practice venue being outdoors). Yeah being told your overreacting when you're experiencing a full body drowning sensation and can't catch your breath for upwards of 30-45 minutes if you push a little to hard ain't the best.
But even bigger is that I don't want my friends and teammates, people I know how much the sport means to them, I don't want them to end up like me. It's been nearly two years since I accepted my derby career was over and not gonna lie, I still have a very hard time with that. I don't want that for anyone else. It's...not even sure how to describe the feeling of being a walking cautionary tale and seeing people not so much as take the most basic precautions.
This.