It's difficult to pinpoint a single moment when the sports world fell apart, but the reaction from the sports community to the COVID-19 pandemic was fast and thorough.

The impact COVID-19 had on the sports world is the top sports story of 2020.

For many, the Utah Jazz' Rudy Gobert's positive coronavirus test result on March 11 was the first moment that they realized the sports world could be affected. On that nondescript Wednesday, the NBA shocked the world by suspending their season.

Seconds away from tipoff, the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder were sent back to their dressing rooms that evening, and people expecting a regular-season game filed out of the Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Energy Arena, unaware of exactly what was happening.

One by one, the dominoes in the sports world were announcing important pauses in their season.

The National Hockey League went ahead with five games that night, but the following day they too announced they were suspending their season. Major League Soccer paused their season immediately as well.

Major League Baseball, in the midst of spring training, delayed the start of their season and cancelled exhibition games in Florida and Arizona.

Closer to home, the Western Hockey league paused their season on March 12th. The Warriors had six games remaining in the final two weeks of the regular season that would never end up getting played.

The Warriors moved quickly to get players from out of the country home. Martin Lang was sent back home to the Czech Republic, and Brock Gould, Chase Hartje and Garrett Wright were sent to their respective American homes as the border closed with Canada's neighbour.

The U18 AAA Warriors had just finished a three-game sweep of the Saskatoon Contacts and had made the final for the first time in franchise history when they were told the league was suspending the playoffs.

Most Moose Jaw minor hockey teams were finished or close to finished their seasons. At the high schools, classes were moved to online-only within a few weeks, which undoubtedly kept people safe but stopped the track and field and badminton seasons before they got started.

Fresh off the Tim Horton's Brier, the curling world paused and then cancelled their world championships for men and women. The Original 16 Cash League was in the midst of their playoffs.

By the following week, plenty of people were working from home to try to stop the spread. Interprovincial travel was strongly discouraged, not just for teams but for the general population.

Over the months, the Grey Cup that was supposed to be in Regina was cancelled, along with the entire 2020 Canadian Football League season, as was the Vanier Cup and many USports events. The Western Canadian Baseball League ended up cancelling its 2020 season.

Throughout the next few months, summer sports like golf, softball and baseball were able to have something looking close to normal for their seasons locally, but the disease reared its ugly head in the fall again and hasn't significantly loosened its grip on the thoughts of the healthy or the health of the most vulnerable.

With restrictions still in place as 2020 turns to 2021, the sporting world is still largely at something close to a standstill. The Western Hockey League still hasn't gotten back into game action, and the provincial U18 AAA leagues started and then stopped, awaiting word on Jan. 15 if they'll be able to start up again.

The sports world saw some deaths as well from people who tested positive. Among those gone are Tom Seaver, the former wrestler Kamala (James Arthur Harris), Fred Dean, Pierre Lacroix and Fred Sasakamoose.

And while the disease that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide appears to only to be able to be stopped with strict, stay-at-home measures, there is a bright spot on the horizon. Two companies have made vaccinations available to the world, and as the vaccines roll out to the population, the hope is that life can get back to normal in 2021.