How sport can be the perma-break from society’s permacrisis

At the end of every year, Vox produces an annual seven-minute wrap-up of the year gone by. It’s often a brilliantly moving, inspirational snapshot of where the human race is at. It shows the trials we’ve faced as a species, how we’ve overcome them and the milestone achievements made. This year was a bit different.
 

Louis Theroux memes aside, it creates a bleak time capsule for future generations, commemorating the invasion of Ukraine, housing and rental costs spiralling, energy prices out of control, record temperatures and wildfires, floods, mass shootings, tech-industry crumbling, right-wing authoritarianism and political insurrection, to name a few. 

It’s no wonder that ‘permacrisis’ was named ‘word of the year’ for 2022. Aside from giving journalists snappy headlines, this state of constant crisis has given many of us significant mental health concerns. Nearly 14m work days were lost in the UK last year due to stress and anxiety. Young people, arguably hit the hardest by the pandemic and subsequent effects, are suffering...