Assessment of the Covid-19 Pandemic Impact on the Economy in the Sphere of Physical Culture and Mass Sports

Abstract

The investigation was aimed at identifying indicators of the Covid-19 pandemic impact on the sphere of physical culture and sports in a heterogeneous array of statistical indicators. The authors used official governmental statistics and Internet statistics reflecting thematic online activity of the population and various aspects of the state of organizations operating in the field of physical culture and sports. Despite of a significant reduction in cash receipts from the services provided in this area, specialized organizations are overcoming the consequences of the pandemic. New forms of inde-pendent and online physical education and sports, which became widespread during the strict quarantine restrictions, remain popular among the population. Quantitative evidence of that statement was worked out: the values of statistical indicators of consumption by the population of physical culture and sports services, demography of organizations operating in the field of sports, by the fall of 2020, began to return to pre-crisis values. Indicators of the demand for physical culture and sports services in online formats included attendance of thematic sites and public pages in social networks, as well as the number of thematic search queries. It was found that such an indicator as the number of visits to the online training site continued to increase even after the quarantine restrictions were lifted. One of the directions of scientific research in that area can be the development of methods for collecting, aggre-gating and data mining, allowing to assess the degree of adaptation of physical culture and sports organizations to the conditions of restrictive measures by using the capabilities of the digital economy.