The educational role of the world's elite athletes and sports celebrities during the Covid-19 pandemic

The purpose of this research was to study the educational role of elite athletes and sports celebrities on changing people's behavior during the pandemic. A content analysis method was used to conduct this research. For selection of the research population, which included world elite athletes and sports celebrities, ESPN sports celebrity ratings, as well as the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Youth Olympics websites, as well as the websites of the National Olympic Committees of 205 countries were used (N= 8000). The sample size was 367 according to Krejcie & Morgan sample size determination table and to prevent a drop in the number of samples, 400 athletes were randomly selected using the quota sampling method. All athletes' pages on the Instagram were examined using thematic analysis technique. Thus, 511 pages were reviewed from January 21 to April 19, 2020, and a total of 2315 messages were analyzed. The research findings showed that athletes were active in Instagram in five roles including of sports coach, lifestyle coach, social skills coach, health coach and silent observers. By identifying how athletes affect the corona crisis, we can plan for the future strategy of organizations to exploit the potential of athletes in influencing the behavior of society.