As the 2020 Big Island sports calendar draws to a close, what better time than now to look back upon a year with COVID-19.
While 2020 wasn’t what we had expected — a sports year filled with unpredictability, cancellations, virtual events, and many sleepless nights — it truly became a testament to our ability in adapting to tough circumstances.
Contrary to what many predicted to be a “sluggish” 2020 year, people have actually been more active than ever before, creating new socially distanced fitness routines, logging miles and making the most of the situation.
According to a recent press release by Strava, the leading social platform for athletes and the largest sport community in the world with over 73 million athletes, data confirmed a boom in global exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As athletes adapted to 2020’s widespread changes to competition and routines, global activity rates on Strava increased dramatically by a whopping 33% over the last 12 months with 1.1 billion activities uploaded and two million new athletes added to Strava each month.
Other notable findings from the Strava Year in Sport data report collected between Oct. 1, 2019, and Sept. 30, 2020, include:
• Women led the way in terms of increased activity – between April and September of this year, women aged 18-29 uploaded 45.2% more activities than during the same period last year, compared to a 27.3% increase by their male counterparts.
• Everesting, an activity in which cyclists ascend and descend a given hill multiple times in order to have cumulatively climbed 8,848 metres or 29,029 feet (the elevation of Mount Everest), surged in popularity with 600% more successful Everesting rides this year than last.
• Despite the cancellation of marathons, hundreds of thousands of 26.2-mile runs were uploaded to Strava — 3X as many marathons were run alone this year than last year.
• Among runners active on Strava since 2019, 55% logged a new personal best time in their 5K, 10K, half marathon or marathon distances in 2020.
• Athletes who were active on Strava in both 2019 and 2020 increased their activity frequency by over 13%.
• There was a significant rise in walking. While running, cycling and indoor workouts saw a 1.5 to 2 times increase in uploads, uploads of outdoor walks increased by three times. Walking was also the top new activity for cyclists between April and June.
• Globally, cyclists logged 8.1 billion miles with 400 billion feet of elevation gain, while runners added another 1.9 billion miles and 94.5 billion feet of climbing. Athletes in the United States contributed 1.2 billion miles of cycling and 387 million miles of running.
Looking at these stats provided by Strava gives each and every one of us in the sports realm a glimmer of hope. That when and how Big Island sports return one thing is for sure — we will be front and center at the start line and ready to go!
Have a safe and Merry Christmas!