… We delve deep into some of the key parts that she disclosed including her fear of never getting back, watching U.S. women’s steeplechasing going to the next level, what does it mean to grab a spoon and deal with things “one spoonful at a time.” Plus, she talks about how three-time U.S. Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein, her new coach, has been a major resource in keeping her career alive. [audio, 1:04:30]
It’s no secret that female athletes face a laundry list of challenges that don’t exist for their male peers. From the wage gap, to jokes about their skills, to the lack of publicity and exposure, women don’t have the luxury of just focusing on the game.
One sport that to the outside world might seem immune from this is skateboarding. With its counter-culture roots and misfits persona, it would stand to reason that the issues afflicting other sports don’t exist in this realm. But historically, that hasn’t been the case.
Women skaters rarely get the attention their male counterparts enjoy, whether in the media or among their own peers. Meow Skateboards is trying to change that.
Leading up to the 2018 NWSL College Draft, Latsko lined up options in case she wouldn’t be drafted by one of the nine teams. Latsko talked to teams overseas in Europe and other locations. However, thankfully for her, she didn’t need it.
Drafted by the Houston Dash with the 28th overall pick, Latsko joined a hefty group of Pennsylvania-based NWSL players. Even more specific, she joined the rankings of players from Western Pennsylvania that includes Meghan Klingenberg.
The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of game surface and pitch size on the physiological responses, jump performance and perceptions of sub-elite female soccer players playing four-a-side games. Sixteen sub-elite female soccer players were divided into four groups of four players each. Three small-sided games (SSGs; pitch size: 400 m2, 600 m2 and 800 m2) were played on three surfaces (dirt [DT], artificial turf [AT] and natural grass [NG]). Players’ heart rate (HR) was monitored during each game. Before and after each SSG, participants performed two counter-movement jumps (CMJs) and answered a questionnaire based on visual analogue scales (VASs) to indicate their perception of the effort required on each surface. DT obtained lower outputs for most variables. In the SSG 600 mean HR was higher on NG than AT (+3.31 %HRmax; p = 0.029), but players’ overall satisfaction with both surfaces was similar (p>0.05). The SSG 400 received the lowest ratings for most variables, whereas the SSG 600 resulted in higher mean HR than SSG 800 [NG (+9.14 b.p.m.; p = 0.001); AT (+7.32 b.p.m.; p = 0.014)]. No surface differences in CMJ performance were found. In conclusion, a higher internal load can be achieved on NG, whereas DT is not recommended for playing soccer. Moreover, the internal load on players in SSGs can be controlled by manipulating pitch size, but over-large pitches may entail a reduction in the physiological profile of female soccer players. [full text]
It isn’t exactly an easy topic to talk about. Baby weight is just the starting point. What about the guilt that can accompany wanting to get out of the house and have some time alone? Or the fact that you find yourself inexplicably unable to control your bladder the way you’re used to? While admittedly it might not make compelling dinner table conversation, on Strava there’s no such thing as too awkward or embarrassing. We’ve invited Tina Muir to open the conversation by sharing her own journey back following the birth of her first child.
Having shot to fame for speaking out about amenorrhea (a lack of menstruation), former elite marathoner Tina isn’t afraid to be honest about her experiences. “Finding time to focus on myself and my running is hard,” explains Tina. “Before it was easy to find a time in the day to run, but with a baby it is dictated by their schedule and you have to squeeze things in where you can.”
Jennifer Wethe knows the importance of getting treatment for a concussion as soon as possible. She also knows how often concussions can be overlooked in those critical first few moments.
“What we find instead is a lot of times people making excuses: ‘Oh well they’re just dehydrated,’ or ‘They got the wind knocked out of them,’ or ‘They had a headache,’” said Wethe, the co-director of the Mayo Clinic Arizona Sports Neurology and Concussion Program.
“Or any of these other things for why there might be some symptoms there instead of actually just checking them out objectively,” she said.
Wethe hopes to change that with a new protocol she had developed that can test athletes for concussions in under three minutes and that is simple enough to be conducted by a layperson.
The advent of Web-based sports injury surveillance via programs such as the High School Reporting Information Online system and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program has aided the acquisition of girls’ and women’s soccer injury data. OBJECTIVE:
To describe the epidemiology of injuries sustained in high school girls’ soccer in the 2005-2006 through 2013-2014 academic years and collegiate women’s soccer in the 2004-2005 through 2013-2014 academic years using Web-based sports injury surveillance. DESIGN:
Descriptive epidemiology study. SETTING:
Online injury surveillance from soccer teams in high school girls (annual average = 100) and collegiate women (annual average = 52). PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS:
Female high school and collegiate soccer players who participated in practices or competitions during the 2004-2005 through 2013-2014 academic years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):
Athletic trainers collected time-loss (≥24 hours) injury and exposure data. Injury rates per 1000 athlete-exposures (AEs), injury rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), injury proportions by body site, and diagnoses were calculated. RESULTS:
The High School Reporting Information Online system documented 3242 time-loss injuries during 1 393 753 AEs; the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program documented 5092 time-loss injuries during 772 048 AEs. Injury rates were higher in college than in high school (6.60 versus 2.33/1000 AEs; IRR = 2.84; 95% CI = 2.71, 2.96), and during competitions than during practices in high school (IRR = 4.88; 95% CI = 4.54, 5.26) and college (IRR = 2.93; 95% CI = 2.77, 3.10). Most injuries at both levels affected the lower extremity and were ligament sprains or muscle/tendon strains. Concussions accounted for 24.5% of competition injuries in high school but 14.6% of competition injuries in college. More than one-third of competition injuries to high school goalkeepers were concussions. CONCLUSIONS:
Injury rates were higher in college versus high school and during competitions versus practices. These differences may be attributable to differences in reporting, activity intensity, and game-play skill level. The high incidence of lower extremity injuries and concussions in girls’ and women’s soccer, particularly concussions in high school goalkeepers, merits further exploration and identification of prevention strategies.
Athletes who have had an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) have an increased risk to re-injure themselves. It puts into question whether they were properly prepared to return to activity or if deficiencies were still present in neuromuscular control, strength, and muscular imbalances.
Athletes who have fully returned to sport following an ACLR demonstrate substantial genu valgum during a cutting maneuver, which suggests an increased risk for future injury.
This research suggests that physical therapy following ACLR should address mechanics bilaterally and during change of direction activities, but further research is warranted in this area.
The National Women’s Soccer League Players Association has officially been recognized by the league as the exclusive bargaining representative of NWSL players, marking a significant step in players’ quests for increased professionalization.
The NWSL and the PA announced the news on Thursday after several months of discussion. Significantly, the league voluntarily recognized the NWSLPA, providing a window into how each party hopes the relationship will materialize. NWSLPA president and Seattle Reign FC’s Yael Averbuch has stressed the collaborative nature that the PA wishes to take. Traditionally, a collective bargaining agreement would be high on the to-do list. CBAs are tense, delicate dances in sports, as the U.S. women’s national team’s recent process reminded. The WNBPA recently announced it would not be renewing its current agreement with the WNBA as part of the fight for improved pay and conditions.
‘Fight’ is the operative word in so many cases. But Averbuch tells The Equalizer that negotiating a CBA is not on the immediate agenda. Instead, the goals are continued and increased communication between the parties, each recognizing the still-fledgling league’s relative restrictions.
The aim of this study is to estimate the ratio of male and female participants in Sports and Exercise Medicine research. Original research articles published in three major Sports and Exercise Medicine journals (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, British Journal of Sports Medicine and American Journal of Sports Medicine) over a three-year period were examined. Each article was screened to determine the following: total number of participants, the number of female participants and the number of male participants. The percentage of females and males per article in each of the journals was also calculated. Cross tabulations and Chi-square analysis were used to compare the gender representation of participants within each of the journals. Data were extracted from 1382 articles involving a total of 6,076,580 participants. A total of 2,366,968 (39%) participants were female and 3,709,612 (61%) were male. The average percentage of female participants per article across the journals ranged from 35% to 37%. Females were significantly under-represented across all of the journals (χ2 = 23,566, df = 2, p < 0.00001). In conclusion, Sports and Exercise Medicine practitioners should be cognisant of sexual dimorphism and gender disparity in the current literature.
Harvard Business Review, Women at Work podcast from
It takes time and care to develop trusting relationships with the women we work with, particularly women who are different from us in some way. But the effort of understanding each other’s experiences is worth it, personally and professionally: We’ll feel less alone in our individual struggles and better able to push for equity.
We talk with professors Tina Opie and Verónica Rabelo about the power of workplace sisterhood. We discuss steps, as well as common snags, to forming deep and lasting connections with our female colleagues. [audio, 51:48]
Players in England’s fully professional Women’s Super League are at risk of being sacked by their clubs if an injury or illness sidelines them for more than three months.
A clause found deep in the small-print of the standard contracts used by WSL teams states that clubs are at liberty to offload players in such circumstances providing they offer them three months’ notice.
Although no WSL team has activated the clause since its installation in contracts in 2011, its existence highlights the fragility of the foundations underpinning Europe’s only wholly professional league.
The UCI has released a set of new policies for women’s cycling, promising to add mandatory maternity leave and insurance options for women on top-level teams in 2020. It will also introduce minimum salaries for elite women that year, raising them gradually so that they equal those of certain men by 2023.
Women’s cycling advocates largely praised the announcement on Tuesday, though some cautioned that the sport still has a long way to go toward achieving gender parity.
It was just over a year ago — Oct. 30, 2017, to be exact — that Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto gleefully announced the hiring of Dr. Lorena Martin as the director of high performance, a position created to help revolutionize the organization’s commitment to training, conditioning and injury prevention.
“We have spent nearly a year working on creating this position and structure as well as identifying the best person for this role,” Dipoto said then.
Now Martin and the team have parted ways, and it’s gotten ugly.
Martin recently confirmed that she had been terminated by the Mariners but said she wasn’t ready to discuss it. But in an Instagram post Monday she leveled serious accusations of prejudice toward Latin American players by Dipoto, manager Scott Servais and director of player development Andy McKay.