The COVID-19 pandemic is now a major global health issue, affecting world population and high-performance athlete too. The aim of the present research was to analyze the effect of psychological profile, academic schedule, and gender in the perception of personal and professional threat of Olympic and Paralympic athletes facing the 2021 Tokyo Olympiad in the actual COVID-19 crisis. We analyzed in 136 Olympic (26.4 ± 6.2 years) and 39 Paralympic athletes (31.8 ± 9.3 years) academic and sport variables, individual perceptions about COVID-19 crisis, personality, loneliness, psychological inflexibility, and anxiety. Paralympic athletes perceived higher negative impact in their training and performance by the confinement than Olympic athletes (+24.18, p < 0.005, r = 0.60). Neuroticism and psychological inflexibility presented the greatest negative feelings for female athletes (+32.59, p < 0.000, r = 0.13) and the perception that quarantine would negatively affect their sports performance. Finally professional athletes showed lower values in personality tests (Agreeableness factor) about COVID-19 crisis than non-professionals (−40.62, p < 0.012, r = 0.88).

Research into the detrimental effects of excessive exercise has been conceptualized in a number of similar ways, including ‘exercise addiction’, ‘exercise dependence’, ‘obligatory exercising’, ‘exercise abuse’, and ‘compulsive exercise’. Among the most currently used (and psychometrically valid and reliable) instruments is the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI). The present study aimed to further explore the psychometric properties of the EAI by combining the datasets of a number of surveys carried out in five different countries (Denmark, Hungary, Spain, UK, and US) that have used the EAI with a total sample size of 6,031 participants. A series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were carried out examining configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance. The CFAs using the combined dataset supported the configural invariance and metric invariance but not scalar invariance. Therefore, EAI factor scores from five countries are not comparable because the use or interpretation of the scale was different in the five nations. However, the covariates of exercise addiction can be studied from a cross-cultural perspective because of the metric invariance of the scale. Gender differences among exercisers in the interpretation of the scale also emerged. The implications of the results are discussed, and it is concluded that the study’s findings will facilitate a more robust and reliable use of the EAI in future research.

The COVID-19 pandemic affects the whole world. Spain is 5th in the world and 3rd in Europe with the largest number of diagnosed cases. Spanish citizens’ attitudes are important in controlling the pandemic. This research assessed attitudes of Spaniards toward COVID-19 in two studies. One (n = 64) was conducted in a shopping centre in Madrid and another (n = 640) online. The results of both studies suggest that women in Spain have a ‘more responsible’ attitude toward the COVID-19 than men. Young adults (18–25 years) scored lower on compliance with safety measures and perceived need to stay home than older adults. In Study 1, level of compliance, knowing someone at risk, and knowing someone infected predicted 31.2% of the variance in the perceived need to stay home. In Study 2, personal concern, level of compliance, keeping distance from others, and perceived social alarm predicted 28.5% of the variance in perceived need to stay home. Regardless of age and/or gender, Spanish people's personal concern about COVID-19 was less than their perceived social alarm about it. These results might help policy makers in considering public attitudes which could play an important role in controlling the current, and possibly a second, wave of COVID-19.

New evidence suggests that passion is linked to exercise addiction. The objective of this work was to determine the strength of the relationship between exercise addiction, obsessive passion, and harmonious passion in team versus individual sports. Athletes (n = 190) from three team and three individual sports were examined. Results of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that obsessive passion and harmonious passion were significant (p < .001) predictors (R² = .39) of exercise addiction. Obsessive passion accounted for 25% and 50% of the variance in team and individual sports, respectively. Harmonious passion added little to the shared variance (3–4%). The levels of risk for exercise addiction were identical (15%) in the two groups. In team sports, harmonious passion was higher than in individual sports (p < .001). The current results suggest that profiles of passion in team sports are superior to those in individual sports, while the risk for exercise addiction is similar.