How Sports Adapt: A Marathon Indoors and Drive-In Soccer
German Silva used his race winnings to bring electricity to his hometown. Now, he’s running to honor the medical personnel on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
German Silva returned to run the New York City Marathon in 2018. This weekend, he ran 26.2 miles on a treadmill to honor medical personnel on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Credit… Elsa/Getty Images
German Silva of Mexico came to fame — and nearly infamy — when he turned prematurely into Central Park in the final mile of the 1994 New York City Marathon, realized his mistake, backtracked and still pulled off a victory with a display of calm persistence.
Afterward, he used his race winnings to help bring electricity to his remote home village of Tecomate, in Veracruz, then won New York again in 1995. Now 52, Silva still possesses a keen sense of social responsibility.
On Sunday, he ran 26.2 miles on his treadmill at home in Querétaro, Mexico, urging others to run anywhere from a kilometer to a marathon to honor the doctors, nurses and other medical personnel on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
With friends and marathon luminaries like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers and Paula Radcliffe cheering him on via Zoom, Silva completed his run in 2 hours 56 minutes, achieving his goal to break three hours. Michael Capiraso, president and chief executive of New York Road Runners, held up a medal in a virtual awards ceremony. John Cahill, a 96-year-old runner, was scheduled to support Silva by running five kilometers, or 3.1 miles, in Salt Lake City.
With more than 160,000 deaths worldwide from Covid-19, economic suffering and millions quarantined at home, Silva said in email messages and a brief interview during his run, “The world needs motivation and to keep inspired with hope.”
The Danish Superliga, the country’s top soccer division, had already announced that when play resumed there would be no fans in the stands, at least until August. So F.C. Midtjylland, the league leader when play was suspended, came up with an idea to keep fans involved: drive-in soccer.
The team will allow 2,000 cars into the parking lot by the stadium to watch the action on giant screens. With spectators staying in their cars, there will be no interaction that would risk spreading the virus. Commentary will be available on the car radio, and admission will be free.
“Our goal is to create the best stadium experience,” said Preben Rokkjaer, the team’s marketing director. “That does not change because of corona; it just makes some other conditions.”
The screens will be about 500 square feet, and the team says if the drive-in is a success, it will go for even bigger screens. (For comparison, the enormous screen at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium is more than 10,000 square feet.) Video of fans in the parking lot will be shown inside the stadium to create atmosphere.
The B.T. Nyheder newspaper asked the question that everyone else may have been afraid to: How will fans, sequestered in their cars, go to the bathroom?
“We hope, of course, that they will do this at home,” Rokkjaer said. “But if you are going to the toilet, you have to flash your lights, and a guard will come and pick you up and make sure the toilet is cleaned afterward.”
No date has been scheduled for the return of the league, but teams are hoping for late May. VICTOR MATHER
The national soccer league in Turkmenistan resumed play on Sunday, with about 500 fans in attendance.
Turkmenistan, which has an authoritarian government, is one of the few countries that do not officially have any reported coronavirus cases, although Iran, next door, has tens of thousands. Reporting on the virus in the country has been sparse, and its president has suggested an herb as a possible cure.
It is one of the few countries that has allowed soccer to return.
The game between Altyn Asyr and the league leader, Kopetdag, was the first in Turkmenistan since March 20. It was played in Ashgabat, the capital, and ended in a 1–1 tie. The league continued play on Monday, with Ahal beating Sagadam, 2–0.
The Belarusian Premier League is the only European league that has continued playing. Tajikistan began its season earlier this month without fans. DANIELLE ALLENTUCK
Some of the best sources for consistent baseball laughs are Jomboy Media’s humorous breakdowns of baseball incidents: brawls, brush backs and bat flips.
Jomboy also became well known for helping to expose the Houston Astros’ sign stealing scheme with a video highlighting players banging on a trash can to signal pitches.
But no Major League Baseball, no Jomboy, right? Nope. The return of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League has brought baseball to the sports-starved, and new content for the Jomboy crew.
In one video, they narrate an incident from the young C.P.B.L. season with a mix of the familiar — brush back pitches, a mostly ineffectual brawl — and the unfamiliar — a bat with a funny picture on it and some odd monkey mascots. VICTOR MATHER
Originally published at https://www.nytimes.com on April 20, 2020.
