Project overview

How did COVID-19 restrictions impact sport?

This research study seeks to understand the expansion of social control during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on sport. Based on our analysis of news media coverage and interviews with community sport organizers and adult athletes, we chronicle how public health restrictions shaped access to and experiences of recreational sport in Canada.

Read the publications

Editorial illustration of a community basketball court, public walking trail, and outdoor rink

Publications

Research publications

The British Journal of Criminology · 2026

‘We weren’t allowed to just exist together’

Emotional labour and encounters with pandemic controlwork in physical recreation spaces

Liam Kennedy, Derek Silva, Hannah J. Walsh, Mark Norman, Melissa Elliott

Interviews explore how coaches, staff, and volunteers took on screening and enforcement responsibilities, and how restrictions changed the experience of playing sport together.

Read paper (PDF) Journal publication

Research question: How did enforcing pandemic restrictions change recreation workers’ responsibilities and participants’ experiences of sport?
Evidence: 43 interviews with recreational athletes and organizers
Interviews conducted: November 2023–June 2024
Scope: Retrospective interviews with adults in Canada, predominantly Ontario. These accounts do not estimate how common the experiences were across the population.

Critical Criminology · 2026

‘Stop the Spread’

Criminalizing Physical Recreation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Hannah J. Walsh, Liam Kennedy, Derek Silva, Mark Norman

The news articles analyzed often framed recreation as a compliance problem, featured official voices prominently, and gave limited attention to unequal access and marginalized experiences.

Read paper (PDF) Journal publication

Research question: How did Canadian news media frame the policing of sport and physical recreation during COVID-19 restrictions?
Evidence: 66 Canadian news articles
Articles published: March 2020–December 2022
Scope: Selected Canadian news coverage, not a measure of participation or the prevalence of enforcement.

The people behind the research

Research team

For enquiries about the project, contact [email protected].

Dr. Liam Kennedy

Liam Kennedy is an Associate Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology, Criminology, and Thanatology at King’s University College. He is the author of Cops and Robbers: What Popular Culture Teaches Kids About Crime and Punishment. His other work has appeared in Theoretical Criminology, Crime, Media, Culture, and Punishment & Society.

Dr. Derek Silva

Derek Silva is Professor of Sociology & Criminology in the Department of Sociology, Criminology, and Thanatology at King's University College, affiliated research professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, and North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Research Fellow. He is the co-author of the 2025 NASSS Outstanding Book Award-winning The End of College Football: On the Human Cost of an All-American Game and co-host of The End of Sport podcast.

Dr. Mark Norman

Mark Norman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University (Canada). His primary research focuses on sport and incarceration, and he is working on a book tentatively titled Yoga and Incarceration: Global Histories, Practices, and Meanings. He has received numerous federally-funded grants and awards, served as an expert on sport and crime prevention for the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, and is a North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Research Fellow.

Keaton Aubin

Keaton Aubin is a PhD candidate in Kinesiology at the University of Toronto within the Centre for Sport Policy Studies. His dissertation explores how a multi-sited community gym produces different social functions across locations, examining sport as a form of social infrastructure and the ways spatial and organizational conditions shape experiences of community, reentry, and social connection. His broader research interests include the effects of sport policy on social inequality and the role of sport organizations in producing social change.

Melissa Elliott

Melissa Elliott is a doctoral candidate at Western University, whose research interests include the sociology of the state, social inclusion/exclusion, criminology, and victimization. Her work can be found in The British Journal of Criminology or Crime & Delinquency. She is currently completing a dissertation that mobilizes the work of Pierre Bourdieu to closely examine the role of sociology and the state in shaping how we understand crime and victimization.

Priyansh

Priyansh is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at the University of Toronto. His research interests include the political economy of capitalist sport, state theory and Marxism, and global histories of sport & the working class. A former sports journalist, Priyansh is also a co-host of The End of Sport podcast.

Hannah J. Walsh

Hannah J. Walsh (she/her) is a Ph.D. Candidate and Teaching Fellow at Queen’s University. Her research interests lie at the intersections of violence, rural space, rural queer experiences, media depictions of victimization and criminalization, and the sociology of sport. Hannah’s work has appeared in Crime, Media, Culture, Critical Criminology, and The British Journal of Criminology.