Athletic players, event organizers and fans in China are trying to be good sports about the need to fight coronavirus, but there's no disguising the fact that the outbreak has had a hard impact on league games, world competitions and elite championships.

World-class international competitions like the Formula One China Grand Prix, the World Athletics Diamond League and the equestrian Global Champions Tour were all postponed in the first half of this year. And now, even the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled to begin in July have been delayed a year.

So how are event organizers, athletes and other involved in the sports industry coping? We talked with some of them to find out.

Sports event organizers and promoters

As Shanghai's largest sports event promoter, state-owned Juss Sports Group operates some of the city's best-known international competitions. The first big event it had to postpone was the 2020 Formula One China Grand Prix, initially scheduled for April 17-19. The three-day race at Shanghai International Circuit was to be the fourth stop on the 2020 race calendar, after competitions in Australia, Bahrain and Vietnam.

On February 12, F1 management officially announced the postponement. It said the decision was made after consultation with the Federation of Automobile and Motorcycle Sports of China, the Shanghai Administration of Sports and the F1 governing body, to "ensure the health and safety of staff, championship participants and fans."

"The fuel F1 cars use during the race is usually transported to China 75 days in advance," said Zhang Yongping, vice director of Juss Sports' operations department.

"The decision had to be made early, otherwise the fuel would have encountered customs and storage problems on arrival."

With the global spread of the coronavirus, the F1 governing body has delayed the start of its whole season. It remains unknown whether or when races will resume.

Juss Sports also had to postpone the equestrian Global Champions Tour, scheduled for May 8-10, and World Athletics Diamond League, an elite track and field competition scheduled for May 16.

There was a subsequent announcement that the Diamond League meet had been rescheduled for August 13, but organizers are not certain about that date.

"No preparation has started because we are still awaiting notice from Juss Sports," organizing team member Bo Chenxuan told Shanghai Daily.

"Shanghai Stadium is undergoing renovation this year, so we would have to pick another venue for this year's event. But now, no location has been decided, and we haven't started the invitation of athletes either."

According to Yang Yibing, vice general manager of Juss Sports Group, uncertainty is the biggest challenge the company is facing.

"It's the first time for all of us to face a global health emergency like this," he said. "There is no experience we can bring to bear."

The suspension of competitions doesn't mean that Juss Sports staff are having a leisure time of it. On the contrary, Yang said there is even much more work than before.

"We established an ‘epidemic issue group' in February," said Yang. "The group is responsible for collecting information about the epidemic's spread, international travel limitations and the entry restrictions of foreign countries. We have to make different sets of contingency plans as we continue to evaluate the situation."

The company also established a legal work group to handle contract issues and to communicate with international partners.

Negotiations with sponsors and related commercial interests occupy a lot of the company's workload when promotional activities get postponed or canceled.

Juss Sports officials have expressed their hope that delayed events can be rescheduled. But clashes with other events scheduled later in the year complicate that equation.

For example, if F1 or the equestrian events are rescheduled to the latter part of the year, say in October and November, they might clash with other big sporting events, like the ATP 1000 Rolex Shanghai Masters and the snooker Shanghai Masters, which are also organized by Juss Sports.

The company and the city might then face the challenge of organizing four to five world-class sports competitions within two months, given the premise that the epidemic is under control by then.

Smaller and private sports promoters are finding it even tougher.

Beijing-based Max Power Promotions owns an "M23 team" of contracted boxers like Xu Can, Xiong Chaozhong and Japan's Sho Kimura.

Xu, China's only current world champion, beat Manny Robles III of the United States by unanimous decision in California last November, defending his World Boxing Association featherweight title for the second time.

The company announced last month that Xu would take on Josh Warrington in Britain for his next bout.

Max Power Promotions CEO Lu Xiaolong said his company has suffered greatly from the epidemic.

"The Xu-Warrington fight was initially scheduled in late May or early June, when the virus wasn't so serious in Britain" said Lu. "Given the current situation, we can only wait. The whole bout faces the threat of cancelation."

He added: "After the suspension of all competitions, we lost a major part of our income. Our training gym has suspended operations to the public, too."

Lu said his company has canceled at least three fight projects and some promotional activities. Boxers and coaches were sent abroad to train when the epidemic was at its height in China.

About 10 boxers, including Xu, stayed in Thailand for 50 days before returning to China last month. They are now training in the southwestern city of Kunming in Yunnan Province.

Lu said the novel coronavirus outbreak comes at a particularly bad time for a company that has been running at a loss in the past few years.

"The growth of every enterprise requires investment and a process," he said. "The losses we incurred were within expectations. But now it's different. We are spending money every day, but no further plans can be made. We don't know for how much longer the situation will last."

Professional athletes and teams

For professional athletes, there is not much to do during an epidemic except to train and try to maintain competitive form.

Shanghai Greenland Shenhua resumed daily training last week though it remains unknown when the 2020 Chinese Super League will kick off.

Shenhua aims to improve its defense this season after acquiring three experienced backfield players — former national team goalkeeper Zeng Cheng and defender Feng Xiaoting from Guangzhou Evergrande, and defender Qin Sheng from Dalian Pro. At the attack line, Cameroon striker Stephane M'Bia joined Shenhua from Wuhan Zall in January.

The team completed its six-week winter training in Abu Dhabi in mid-March, and gathered again at Pudong's Kangqiao training base after a two-week quarantine and another two weeks of rest. M'Bia and captain Giovanni Moreno are yet to join the team due to China's border control policies.

"It feels like we have already completed two or three pre-season training sessions," newcomer Feng told the media. "We don't know when the season will start."

Shenhua's South Korean head coach Choi Kang-hee has been working in Shanghai without his assistants, who failed to return to China before the border was closed. Shenhua had to hire a temporary Spanish goalkeeping coach. Choi's training plans assume the league will start up in late June.

"The team would have to face a tight schedule and play two matches a week sometimes," Choi said of the possible revised schedule. "With the absence of Moreno and M'Bia, I hope the players can reach competitive form through hard training."

Shenhua won the 2019 CFA Cup to clinch a spot in the 2020 AFC Champions League.

Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins has also been training at Kangqiao, though the 36-year-old has yet to sign a new contract with the club. The former Inter Milan striker joined Shenhua in 2016 and left at the beginning of last year, after completing his previous contract with the club.

"Martins is a senior player," said Choi. "He has been training hard. We still have a lot of time for observation and squad adjustment."

Another Shanghai-based CSL team SIPG finished its winter training in Dubai in February, and gathered again in Shanghai one week earlier than Shenhua. Foreign players, including Hulk, Oscar and Odil Akhmedov, all managed to return to China in time. Newly signed Brazilian striker Ricardo Lopes Pereira has also rejoined his teammates, but the team is still missing Austrian striker Marko Arnautovic due to border controls.

Sports commentators

Sports activity suspension affects a wide range of participants, including sports commentators.

Zhuang Ningyu, a Great Sports channel basketball and mixed martial arts commentator, found his workload shrank by 70 percent because of the pandemic. As a TV commentator and program presenter, Zhuang used to provide commentary for as many as 10 matches a week.

"Now there is no more commentary work," he told Shanghai Daily. "The domestic basketball league won't get started before July."

The lack of sports activities around the world has made it difficult for sports channels, including Shanghai Media Group's Great Sports, to produce program content. Most of the channel's live news is now filled with reports of canceled events and interactive online challenges that athletes have organized from their homes. The channel has also been airing videos of past matches.

Zhuang said the channel has been working on the development of new programs to weather this difficult period.

"We have planned an online football eSports tournament as a warm-up for the Euro 2020," he said. "Despite the postponement of the Euro 2020, our online tournament will carry on, with registration already under way. The tournament will be quite popular, considering the number of participant applications we have already received from the public."

Great Sports has also produced indoor-exercise programs where sports stars show viewers how to keep fit at home.

Zhuang said some free-agent commentators and emcee associates have been out of work for some time now. Some have joined online shopping platforms, leveraging their public profiles to keep their incomes afloat.

"For me, I'm having much more time to accompany my son and family, which is quite a luxury," said Zhuang. "I'm getting time to read books and review some classic matches that will help in future commentary."

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