Many people have resorted to training outdoors with gyms and fitness facilities closed due to existing lockdown restrictions. However, as many Welsh sprinters have started training in public, they’ve experienced verbal abuse by strangers.

Harassment While Training Outdoors

Rhiannon Linington-Payne, the former 400m champion from Wales said that the behavior from these strangers is potential harassment and it’s not a joke. She has had people shout inappropriate comments regarding her figure, cars slowing down to stare, wolf-whistling, and other offensive and derogatory comments shouted at her.

While this kind of harassment is happening to more women training outdoors than just Linington-Payne, the Welsh Athletics department began to work alongside the South Wales Police department to get to the bottom of the intimidating behavior.

At the moment, only individuals that are classified to be elite athletes by Sport Wales, along with those that are part of the Commonwealth Games program, are allowed to travel to and train in their designated facilities. This means that a great number of athletes that represent Wales are left with not much of a choice but to train at home, in parks, or alongside the roads.

A Great Amount of Irony Regarding Safety

For Hannah Brier, Great Britain and Wales sprinter, it’s ironic that she’s not allowed to train on the track due to safety reasons, even though she doesn’t feel safe where she’s currently training.

She competes in the 100m and the 200m sprints, which means that she trains about 6 days a week. This includes lifting weights in her parents’ kitchen or running alongside the road. An intimidating situation left her feeling uneasy as she was running alongside the road when a man drove past her multiple times shouting and staring.

To avoid the attention, she has resorted to wearing loose-fitting clothes and fewer colors/patterns while training outdoors.

England Athletics did a survey back in 2017 which found that a third of female runners had been harassed while running outdoors. 2,000 women were surveyed, and 60% of them said that they often feel anxious when running along and that personal safety is their main concern.

Soccer fans in Europe have been starved of elite-level action for months. As the big leagues across the continent start up again, we’re ranking the best soccer teams in Europe to look out for.

4. Manchester City

Although Manchester City is 25 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League, the win over Real Madrid before lockdown shows the strength of this team. City went to Madrid and won 2-1, proving that they are just a class above the Spanish side at this moment. Thanks to Pep Guardiola’s leadership and the individual brilliance of De Bruyne and Aguero, Manchester City remain one of Europe’s strongest teams.

3. Paris Saint Germain

France made the early decision to call off Ligue 1 midway through the season. It now puts Paris Saint Germain at a disadvantage when the Champions League resumes later this year. The other teams will use their domestic leagues to remain sharp, but PSG will have to rely on the brilliance of Neymar and Mbappe to crown them European champions.

2. Liverpool

Liverpool began to wobble just before teams took a break due to the global virus threat. Although Liverpool lost in the Champions League and FA Cup, the team is all set to win the Premier League in the first few games back. With Premier League teams getting ready to start playing again, Liverpool will be expected to continue to dominate all before them.

1. Bayern Munich

While Liverpool has swept aside almost every team in the Premier League, they are out of every other competition. Bayern Munich, on the other hand, remains in place to win it all. As the Bundesliga resumed, Bayern has looked scary good as no one can seemingly get close to them. While the rest of Europe waits for their own leagues to return, any team in the Champions League will be quaking at the prospect of facing the German side.

These are the top soccer teams in Europe to keep an eye out for this year!