… As if to announce that she’s back, Heath scored the equalizing goal less than 10 minutes after entering Saturday’s 1-1 draw against the Utah Royals.
Reflecting on the year, Heath was clearly frustrated during with her lengthy stay on the sideline.
“It’s the worst thing in the whole entire world,” she said. “For any athlete, everyone will tell you they’d rather be somewhere else, you know, than have to watch something that you love to do so much. It’s almost torturous. It’s like dangling something out in front of you that you can’t have. But that’s the kind of mental fortitude that you have to have and you have to get through. And all athletes do it. You sign up for it when you do this job.”
An international men’s soccer league has no room for Canada’s top female player.
Stephanie Labbé is considered the No. 1 player in the country. She earned 49 caps, awarded for each international game appearance, and helped the Canadian women’s team win Olympic bronze at the 2016 Rio games.
To challenge herself, she also tried to win a place on the Calgary Foothills FC men’s soccer team this spring.
… Early on in my second pregnancy in 2017 it became clear I wasn’t going to be able to be active. And not for any easy to explain medical reason. Just that getting my heart rate up above 100 felt freaking terrible. Think light leaded, heart racing, zero enjoyment, and requiring a 2 hour minimum nap afterwards terrible. I’d take it easy for a week, and then test a mild form of exercise to see if anything had improved. Narcoleptic incapacitation ensued. This was way outside of my norm, and a huge departure from my experience being pregnant the first time. I was sure something was very wrong, but the doctor insisted my experience was “normal” (side note: the range of weird things considered normal when it comes to pregnancy is the stuff of sci-fi). So around 18 weeks pregnant, I stopped trying.
The timing was unfortunate, really. After 12 years being a pro runner and counseling runners of all abilities on the values of trying hard and giving a shit, I was really looking forward to exploring effort and goal setting in a new arena: one that was personal and community driven rather than a performance in front of cameras and stadiums with glory and money on the line. I thought the physical changes of pregnancy would make the transition to recreational runner easier in a way, by forcing me to “go recreational” in one big move. But instead I found myself identifying with another group entirely: the sedentary and inactive. I spent almost a year this way, completely removed from physical activity. This is what I learned.
“Words like ‘feminine’ and ‘fighter’ can go together,” Garbiñe Muguruza says with charming force on a cold but sun-kissed morning in Madrid. “You can be feminine and you can say, ‘I really want to beat her. But I don’t want to look like a little monster in the corner.’ I want to take this wall down which says you are one thing or the other. If you are a feminine athlete people say: ‘Oh, she wants to be a model or she’s not concentrating.’ No. We are concentrating.”
Muguruza, the reigning Wimbledon champion and world No 3, is a formidable competitor who is proud she beat Serena and Venus Williams in the finals of the two grand slam tournaments she has won so far. In a ridiculously stylish hotel she is also relaxed and refreshingly forthright.
“It’s a delicate thing because for some people it’s very hard to allow an athlete to be feminine. For me it’s easy. I want to fight on court but I also want to wear something I like. You can be angry and competitive and a fighter and you can also be nice and wear something by Stella McCartney. I feel good in that and it’s important for your esteem because you’ve got to be resilient. I’m a tennis player, and that’s my priority. I like fashion but I would never want to be a model. I don’t want to forget what I’m good at because as soon as you do you’re screwed.”
… “We haven’t been apart from each other more than 24 hours, ever,” Williams said of her daughter, whom Williams’s longtime fitness trainer, Mackie Shilstone, calls Baby O.
Williams’s private sphere is about to become much more transparent with the premiere on Wednesday of a five-part series on HBO called “Being Serena,” which tracks her pregnancy, her life-threatening postnatal problems and her comeback in remarkably unvarnished fashion.
The cameras follow her and Ohanian through some of the most intimate moments of their lives: even into the delivery room during Olympia’s birth by cesarean section as Ohanian murmurs, “So proud of you,” into his wife’s ear. That is only moments before they get their first look at their new “teammate,” Williams’s splayed fingers mirroring Olympia’s outstretched arms with a clear, plastic barrier still separating mother and child. Olympia is soon placed on Williams’s chest and immediately stops crying.
Fran Kirby could be forgiven for having run out of steam after 18 months of relentless football. As it is, the England forward is hoping to cap a roller-coaster fortnight by helping Chelsea travel halfway towards the double by claiming an FA Cup triumph against Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday evening.
Next week, the 24-year-old will receive her award as the inaugural winner of the Football Writers’ Association women’s Footballer of the Year. That follows on from her being named the PFA female Player of the Year at last month’s awards ceremony.
The only prize she has so far missed out on in 2018 is the Champions League, after Chelsea were knocked out by Wolfsburg, 5-1 on aggregate. A 2-0 away defeat against the German side confirmed their fate last Sunday.
Assessing repeated-sprint ability in Division I collegiate women soccer players. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2018-Repeated-sprint ability (RSA) is a key component of soccer, and is the capacity to repeatedly produce near-maximal to maximal sprints with short recovery periods. Repeated-sprint ability has received little analysis in collegiate women soccer players. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between RSA and tests of soccer-specific performance. Nineteen players from the same Division I collegiate women’s soccer team were recruited. The RSA test consisted of six 20-m sprints completed on 15-second cycles. The measurements taken were total time (TT) and percent decrement (PD; percent change from first to last sprint). Subjects also completed tests of: lower-body strength (1 repetition maximum [1RM] back squat); jump performance (vertical and standing long jumps); linear (0-5, 0-10, and 0-30 m sprint intervals) and change-of-direction (505 from each leg) speed; and soccer-specific fitness (Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 [YYIRT1]). Pearson’s correlations (p ≤ 0.05) were used to calculate relationships between RSA TT and PD with the performance tests. Total time exhibited significant relationships with the 0-10 (r = 0.50) and 0-30 m (r = 0.71) sprint intervals, and the left-leg 505 (r = 0.57). However, lower-body strength measured by the 1RM back squat and jump performance did not relate to TT. Percent decrement correlated only with the left-leg 505 (r = 0.53) and no other performance test. This included the YYIRT1, although both PD and YYIRT1 performance are limited by fatigue. The results from this study indicated that faster linear sprinting speed could positively influence RSA in Division I collegiate women soccer players.
… It’s interesting you say women weren’t respected in the Netherlands when many people would say Northern European countries, like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, historically have been most progressive in closing the gender equality gap …
Yeah, we weren’t a part of that at that time. Definitely not. The Scandinavian countries were a lot further, and it definitely has to do with equality. It also has to do with history. In the Netherlands, they saw soccer purely as a men’s sport. They didn’t see it as a women’s sport. In the U.S., they have sports like American football and baseball which are men’s sport, and soccer was more for women. The sports cultures are different, too. Germany is also different: they were more open, and of course they have more people, which helps. Regardless, we needed about 20 years to catch up to them.
What was life like for a female soccer player in the Netherlands when you grew up compared to now?
Oh yeah, there’s a huge difference between 20 years ago to now. Of course, the [European Championship trophy] has helped. Because of the Euros,we made a huge step, because we got visibility, we are acknowledged, we have a lot of recognition and respect. Before, they say “soccer’s for men” and ridiculous statements like that. If I said “I play soccer” when I was 18 years old, people would say: “Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Now they don’t. They see the women as top athletes. And we are. Now a lot of girls start playing soccer. When I was growing up, most of my female friends weren’t allowed to play. Their parents said “No, that’s not a sport for girls.” So it has totally changed.
We’re bringing together the brightest industry leaders and game changers to create change and opportunity for all women in triathlon at this one-of-a-kind event. Please join us at the first-ever Outspoken: Women in Triathlon Summit, taking place November 30 through December 2, 2018 in Tempe, Arizona.
We believe there should be more public discourse around what choices we want to make as individuals and as a society regarding how our data and images and facial recognition will be used and more tools to make those choices and to express or enforce them. To that end, our work has multiple components, from a FOIA request for information about the federal government’s use of facial recognition to an open sourced technical prototype for changing photographs so that facial recognition systems can’t see faces in them.
The Virginia Tech lab that dramatically changed the parameter of safety for football helmets used in high school and professional sports, has turned its attention to soccer, and today released its first set of ratings for soccer headgear.
The lab at Virginia Tech is testing and rating soccer helmets, “The amazing thing we found between wearing one and not wearing one is drastic.” Lab Director Steve Rowson said, “Not wearing headgear and hitting another players head while trying to hit a ball could result in upwards of 150 g’s.” [audio, 4:30]
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention programmes have not been as successful at reducing injury rates in women’s basketball as in soccer. This randomised controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT02530333) compared biomechanical adaptations in basketball and soccer players during jump-landing activities after an ACL injury prevention programme. Eighty-seven athletes were cluster randomised into intervention (6-week programme) and control groups. Three-dimensional biomechanical analyses of drop vertical jump (DVJ), double- (SAG-DL) and single-leg (SAG-SL) sagittal, and double- (FRONT-DL) and single-leg (FRONT-SL) frontal plane jump landing tasks were tested before and after the intervention. Peak angles, excursions, and joint moments were analysed using two-way MANCOVAs of post-test scores while controlling for pre-test scores. During SAG-SL the basketball intervention group exhibited increased peak knee abduction angles (p = .004) and excursions (p = .003) compared to the basketball control group (p = .01) and soccer intervention group (p = .01). During FRONT-SL, the basketball intervention group exhibited greater knee flexion excursion after training than the control group (p = .01), but not the soccer intervention group (p = .11). Although women’s soccer players exhibit greater improvements in knee abduction kinematics than basketball players, these athletes largely exhibit similar biomechanical adaptations to ACL injury prevention programmes.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal from
This document provides an updated overview of select musculoskeletal and medical issues that are important to team physicians who are responsible for the medical care of female athletes. It is not intended as a standard of care and should not be interpreted as such. This document is only a guide and, as such, is of a general nature, consistent with the reasonable, objective practice of the health care professional. Individual treatment will turn on the specific facts and circumstances presented to the physician. Adequate insurance should be in place to help protect the physician, the athlete, and the sponsoring organization
A survey of the research that has been done on women and concussions has found that female athletes have a higher risk of concussion and report more severe symptoms in comparison with male athletes.
The University of Virginia review was conducted because there have been mixed findings about whether women and girls have differences in concussion incidence and recovery, said senior author Donna Broshek, a neuropsychologist and co-director of U.Va. Health System’s Acute Concussion Evaluation Clinic.
Women tend to get more concussions in the sports where there is a male equivalent, Broshek said, such as soccer or basketball.
“The reason women have lower concussion rates overall is because women tend not to play football or, in general, wrestling, or some other sports that have higher concussion risk,” Broshek said.
Women’s sports leagues are banding together with a new initiative, SheIS.
Eight leagues, including the WNBA, U.S. Tennis Association, Women’s Pro Fastpitch League and Canadian Women’s Hockey, will try to help each other increase resources, viewership and attendance.
“Each commissioner has agreed to come to one and another’s events,” WNBA President Lisa Borders told The Associated Press. “Women have to support women before you ask other people to support you. I’ll buy a ticket to a hockey game in Canada or a fast-pitch softball game.”
BJSM blog; Simon Franklin, Jonathan Ospina Betancurt and Dr Silvia Camporesi from
… These new regulations imposed by the IAAF and valid from today target specifically Caster Semenya and follow a logic that our article (http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/02/22/bjsports-2017-098513.info ), and original blog post (http://blogs.bmj.com/bjsm/2018/02/07/statistical-analysis-observational-performance-data-can-tell-us-cannot-case-dutee-chand-vs-iaaf-vs-afi/ ), specifically warned against. The ruling seems to be based on an interpretation of the evidence put forward in the study by Bermon et al (http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/06/26/bjsports-2017-097792) that says that it is only in the middle distance events that hyper-androgenic female athletes have an advantage. We argue that this reasoning is entirely misguided.
Contrary to what IAAF claims, science is not its side. Both our article (http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/02/22/bjsports-2017-098513.info) and the article by Sonksen et al (http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/01/18/bjsports-2017-098446.info) showed that the Bermon et al study on which IAAF is based is severely flawed.
It was an unforgettable scene: a born-and-bred New York film influencer and a future Seattle basketball legend chopping it up on the Coney Island courts. Raining threes, rolling cameras, spinning ferris wheel.
Except this wasn’t 1998, and Spike Lee was busy finishing his new film. Ray Allen was nowhere to be found. Come to think of it, there was hardly a man in sight.
Here we had music-video director Va$htie and Seattle Storm star Jewell Loyd powering Bleacher Report’s 2018 #BRMovies package with a 20th-anniversary transformation of He Got Game—one of our favorite sports movies of all time—into She Got Game. [video, 2:46]
Jessica Chichester ran the fifth fastest time amongst females at this year’s Boston Marathon, 2:45:23. She won exactly zero dollars in prize money for her efforts. Was this sexism, given that the fifth fastest male took home $15,000? Nationally featured political commentator, millennial expert (whatever the hell that is), and author of GOP GPS, Evan Siegfried, seems to think so and shared this ill-informed and inflammatory Buzzfeed article (more on that in a bit) to back up his case. But Siegfried, like many others who are ready to incite a riot over this, is way off base here. Let me attempt to explain.
While Chichester ran an impressive race in Boston, not awarding her prize money is not sexism—it’s simply following the rules. And as much as Buzzfeed would like you to believe that if she were a man that she’d have taken home $15K, if a dude from Wave 2 (10:25 start) ran 2:19:15—faster than all but four of the elite men who hypothetically started 25 minutes ahead of him in Wave 1—guess what? He would have went home with empty pockets too. That’s because at a race like Boston—any race, really—you’re competing against other people, not the clock. Andrew Bumbalough took home $15,000 from Boston because he started in Wave 1 and was the fifth male across the finish line (and also happened to run the fifth-fastest time). The prize purse breakdown for men and women—which pays out 15 spots—is exactly the same for men and women. Boston, like many other marathon majors, has a separate women’s start. In order to be eligible for prize money, you need to be a part of said start. J
The 2014 WNBA champion wants to know why high school and college coaches are not encouraging their players to watch and learn from the league. Naturally, this forces examination of some of the deeper cultural issues that normalize gender bias.
Powered by increasing professionalism, higher standards of play, big-name players and success on the national and domestic stage, women’s football has well and truly piqued the interest of the UK public. Improved mainstream media coverage, better visibility on social media and encouraging viewing figures have followed, inspiring a great deal of positivity about the sport’s future.
Casey Stoney has witnessed the changes first-hand. The 35-year-old won 130 England caps and captained the Lionesses, before being awarded an MBE for her services to the game.
“The women’s game has grown significantly in this country in recent years,” she wrote in an open letter upon joining Phil Neville’s backroom staff in February. “That is something we should all be very proud of.”