The physical cost of the Covid-19 lockdown for non-professional athletes.

We analyze the participation of non-professional athletes (NPAs) to sporting events (road cycling or running) that take place annually in Italy or the UK (further countries may be added later, depending on data availability). The Covid-19 lockdown inhibits or reduces training practices. This may condition negatively the athletes’ performance in these events. When the lockdown will be over, competitions will resume and, presumably, NPAs’ performances in each event will be inferior in comparison to previous years. We expect this to be true for events that will take place in the first few months after the end of the lockdown. The reduced performance (e.g.: the increase in the time required to complete a given road track) may be interpreted as a measure of the physical cost of the lockdown.