Women sport and fitness professionals in pandemic times: feminist ethics, digital connection and becoming community

In this chapter we draw upon interviews and object-oriented methods with women working in the sport and fitness sector (i.e., athletes, coaches, fitness instructors, studio owners) about their experiences during the pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand. Engaging with feminist new materialisms, we explore the women sport and fitness professionals’ initial affective respondings to the pandemic, their use of digital technologies to support their communities during lockdown(s), and how the re-turn to social life post-lockdown(s) prompted new feminist ethics in their ways of working. In so doing, this chapter highlights the gendered impacts of the pandemic, focusing particularly on how women in the sport and fitness sector responded with creativity and care to support their colleagues, teammates and communities during times of great uncertainty and upheaval.