US Ski & Snowboard has posted guidelines for return to training.
https://usskiandsnowboard.org/covid-19/return-snow-training
Of particular note, I think the following are going to be among the more challenging guidelines:
- Athletes and staff should arrive at the on-snow/sport-specific training venue changed and ready to start their warm up/training (try not use mountain lodges or changing rooms at the mountain, unless necessary (restroom)).
- Athletes and staff should bring their own water bottles (filled), towels, radios, drills, cameras and other equipment needed and do not allow sharing of items.
For academy programs, not sharing equipment will, I think, mostly mean carrying it on your person and never putting it down (the programs I've worked with generally had close to, if not quite, enough equipment for each coach to operate independently). I'm not aware of a single club program that has enough drills to go around, let alone cameras (radios,
maybe), though, and I sure wouldn't expect this to be a good year to ask for more equipment spending.
Also,
- All “team/site equipment” should be sanitized before, during, and after the on-snow/sport-specific training session.
So we need to sanitize all the gates at least three times a day? That sounds...challenging. I have strong suspicion that whatever protocols we end up with, there's going to be a bit of handwaving here (like, are we really going to separate out a bundle, sanitize all the gates, wait the appropriate time for the sanitizer to be effective, and then rebundle, or are we just going to liberally spray Lysol at the bundled gates?). At least plastic gates should be relatively easy to disinfect; I'm not sure the same is true of panels or other fabric materials.
edit to add: and hopefully that "team/site equipment" sanitation requirement doesn't extend to B-net, or we're going to need full-time folks just for that.