Female Sports Science newsletter – February 3, 2019

Female Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for February 3, 2019

 

athletes


Sabrina Ionescu Is Always On

Bleacher Report, Mirin Fader from

How did a 5’11” player become CBB’s triple-double queen? With a basketball mentality nicknamed Bazooka Mode and an obsession her coach compares to MJ, Taurasi and the drummer from Whiplash.

 

It’s not how many times Lindsey Vonn fell, it’s how many times she got back up

ESPN Olympic Sports, Wayne Drehs from

How do you define greatness? What is the formula best served to determine the greatest athletes in sports? Is it victories? Championships? Records? Is it accomplishing the most with seemingly the least? Does it change depending on the sport?

Fifteen months ago, nestled into the corner of a cushy couch in her Vail, Colorado, home, Lindsey Vonn said that she didn’t just want the record for World Cup wins by a man or woman — she needed it. That was her definition of greatness, the tangible proof she believed she needed to demonstrate to others — and perhaps even to herself — that she was the best ever.

But in sports, it’s never that simple. Vonn’s body, specifically her knees, refused to cooperate.

 

Coyne Schofield shines in fastest skater at All-Star Skills

NHL.com, Amalie Benjamin from

… Coyne Schofield, blond ponytail flying, crossed the line in 14.346. She wouldn’t win. The title would go to Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid for the third consecutive year, at 13.378, but she finished less than a second slower than the fastest player in the NHL. She beat Clayton Keller of the Arizona Coyotes, at 14.526, and she could have done better. She had, already.

“It shows the top players — men or women — belong,” Coyne Schofield said.

The idea was hatched on Thursday by NHL staff. Coyne Schofield and three other women’s players — U.S. Women’s National Team forward Brianna Decker, and Canada’s Women’s National Team players Fast and forward Rebecca Johnston — came to the arena to demonstrate some of the events.

 

Brianna Decker hit the mark when the NHL missed

SB Nation, The Ice Garden blog, Leighann Strollo from

Friday night was filled with a lot of firsts during the NHL All-Star Skills Competition. US Olympian Kendall Coyne Schofield was front and center at the start as the first woman to ever compete in the NHL Skills Competition. Then, her PyeongChang teammate Brianna Decker outpaced every man in the Premier Passing event.

As Decker was a demonstrator and not a participant, her time wasn’t televised. That didn’t stop word getting out late last night, and so when Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers was crowned the winner with his completion time of 1:09, fans began to take notice that Brianna Decker’s demonstration was finished in 1:06.

 

B.C. teenage soccer star Jordyn Huitema opts to forgo college and turn pro

TheProvince, The Canadian Press, Neil Davidson from

… “We have definitely encouraged them to go and seek new opportunities and challenge themselves overseas … It’s great for the players and their development and our team for sure that they get this experience,” said Canada coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller, a native of Denmark.

Huitema, who turns 18 in May, has size, pace and vision.

She turned heads when then-coach John Herdman had her train with the national team at 14. She made her senior debut at 15 at the Algarve Cup in March 2017 and drew more attention three months later as a 16-year-old, scoring twice off the bench against Costa Rica.

 

After turning to triathlon post-college, Sophie Chase’s rise has been meteoric

espnW, Doug Williams from

Sophie Chase didn’t want to be an athlete anymore. She wasn’t having fun and was tired of trying to live up to expectations. Especially her own.

The distance runner had been beaten down by injury, illness and disappointing results in her first two years at Stanford and thought she might be better off erasing “athlete” from her student-athlete status.

“I was in such a dark place,” Chase says. “I didn’t have the same joy doing athletics that I once did in high school. I was pretty much ready to give it up.”

But she held off. She took a step back and focused on her Christian faith. She realized she’d put too much pressure on herself. Sophie Chase the athlete had smothered Sophie Chase the person.

 

training


What I Wish I’d Known About the “Fourth Trimester”

5280 Magazine, Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan from

… For several weeks after that run, I gingerly tried getting back into my pre-baby activities. I’d been strong and fit before getting pregnant and was eager to recapture that feeling. But hiking brought on some of the same pelvic discomfort, especially when I was hauling a heavy pack on my back. Certain weight-lifting moves, like lunges and squats, were equally unpleasant. And running…forget about it. Even the everyday task of schlepping Sam around in his bucket car seat was more challenging than I’d expected.

The lasting pain finally made me nervous that something was really wrong. I brought it up to my general practitioner, who felt my stomach and promptly diagnosed “diastasis recti,” or separated abdominal muscles (picture the six-pack muscles unzipping down the middle, vertically). Up to 60 percent of new moms have the same issue—caused by the massive belly-stretching that goes on during pregnancy and the hormonal changes that loosen connective tissues within the body—at six weeks postpartum. My OB hadn’t checked for it, and I hadn’t known to ask. It’s likely the separation, and resulting general core instability, was contributing to my workout woes.

Turns out, I was in good company. Chronic postpartum health issues like these are rampant among new moms.

 

Female Athlete Conference

Boston Children's Hospital, Continuing Medical Education from

June 6-8 at Babson College

The 2019 Female Athlete conference is a global event designed to present strategies to prevent and treat clinical issues and injuries specific to female athletes. As girls and young women become more empowered through sports, it is important to advance research on how sex and gender differences affect their performance and overall sports experience. With research advancements in mind, the Female Athlete Conference centers on the specific health issues that make female athletes unique. Experts in sports medicine, sports psychology, sports science, nutrition and sports culture will present strategies to prevent and treat clinical issues and injuries that can limit a female athlete’s performance.

 

Women may need more cooling during or after exercise

Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, Marlene Cimons from

When the body heats up during exercise, it copes in several ways. There are involuntary systems, such as sweating that help it cool off, and voluntary measures, such as dousing with cold water or wearing (and switching) hats filled with ice, as American Galen Rupp did every five kilometers during the Rio 2016 Olympic marathon. (He won a bronze medal.) Voluntary actions are known as “thermal behavior.”

When it comes to men and women, it appears that not all thermal behavior is the same, during exercise or after, in cooling down. Women seem to need more cooling than men, according to a study, which is “the first to highlight sex differences in thermal behavior,” said author Nicole Vargas, a postdoctoral fellow in exercise and nutrition sciences at the University at Buffalo’s school of public health.

 

A novel standardised side hop test reliably evaluates landing mechanics for anterior cruciate ligament reconstructed persons and controls

Sports Biomechanics journal from

We propose a novel one-leg standardised rebound side-hop test (SRSH) specifically designed for detailed analysis of landing mechanics. Anterior cruciate ligament reconstructed persons (ACLR, n = 30) and healthy-knee controls (CTRL, n = 30) were tested for within-session and test-retest (CTRL only, n = 25) reliability and agreement. Trunk, hip and knee angles and moments in sagittal, frontal, and transversal planes during landing, including time to stabilisation (TTS), were evaluated using intra-class correlations (ICCs), average within-person standard deviations (SW) and minimal differences. Excellent within-session reliability were found for angles in both groups (most ICCs > 0.90, SW ≤ 5°), and excellent to good for moments (most ICCs > 0.80, SW ≤ 0.34 Nm/kg). Only knee internal rotation moment showed poor reliability (ICC < 0.4). Test-retest results were excellent to fair for all angles and moments (ICCs 0.47–0.91, SW < 5° and ≤ 0.25 Nm/kg), except for peak trunk lateral bending angle and knee internal rotation moment. TTS showed excellent to fair within-session reliability but poor test-retest results. These results, with a few exceptions, suggest promising potential of evaluating landing mechanics during the SRSH for ACLR and CTRL, and emphasise the importance of joint-specific movement control variables in standardised tasks. [full text]

 

The Effects of Match Congestion on Gait Complexity in Female Collegiate Soccer Players

Translational Sports Medicine journal from

This investigation examined the effects of a congested match schedule on gait complexity in collegiate female soccer players. Participants were 7 female collegiate players. Each day, training and match loads were recorded during a six‐day period that included two competitive matches (separated by 66 hrs) using a GPS, acceleration, and heart rate monitoring and perceptual recovery scores. Gait was examined before each training session, during a 400m run at comfortable pace. Spatiotemporal characteristics were computed using continuous wavelet transform and gait complexity was assessed with detrended fluctuation analysis. High match load (HML) players played more minutes than the low match load (LML) players (78.6 ± 4.9 vs 15.8 ± 4.9 min, p<.05). and covered more total distance (TotDist) between the initial and final session (31,970.5 ± 13190.9 vs 22,905.5 ± 1673.1 m, p<.05). During this period, greater accumulated TotDist and recovery scores were associated with decreases in the gait fractal scaling index (r = ‐0.5 to ‐0.83), despite little change in spatiotemporal characteristics. This study indicates increased load during a 6‐day period of training and matches alters gait complexity. It is possible that some aspect of central and/or peripheral fatigue alters motor control leading to less structured gait variability. [pdf full text available]

 

Adapting Your Sport and Exercise Routine During Pregnancy

Women's Sports Foundation, The She Network, Marion Codino from

Studies have largely proven that adapted physical exercise during pregnancy allows women to deal with the changes their bodies go through while they are pregnant.

The benefits of keeping up physical activity – which include posture rectification, decrease of gestational diabetes and preservation of joint mobility and muscle tone — during pregnancy are numerous. Exercise helps women go through this crucial stage in their lives and encourages a quick recuperation after delivery.

However, many pregnant women feel lost regarding the type of exercise they may practice. In my experience working as a physiotherapist, I find that pregnant women are often concerned about whether certain types of exercise are harmful to them or their baby.

 

technology


WiDS Datathon Collaboration Day

Berkeley Institute for Data Science from

Berkeley, CA “Join the Women in Data Science (WiDS) Datathon Collaboration Day on Saturday, February 2, to meet other participants, form teams, learn the basics of participating in Kaggle competitions, and get a jump start on your Datathon submissions with the help of technical mentors and domain experts.” [registration required]

 

How Computer Science at CMU Is Attracting and Retaining Women

Communications of the ACM, Carol Frieze and Jeria L. Quesenberry from

The persistent underrepresentation of women in computing has gained the attention of employers, educators, and researchers for many years. In spite of numerous studies, reports, and recommendations we have seen little change in the representation of women in computer science (CS)—consider that only 17.9% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science were awarded to women in 2016 according to the annual Taulbee Survey.15 At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) we do not believe the situation is an intractable problem.

 

Why women are becoming more than an afterthought in health tech

Irish Times, Clara O'Brien from

After being a neglected market for some time, technology aimed at women – and in particular their health – looks set to become big business.

Market analyst Frost & Sullivan has even put a figure on it: by 2025, “femtech” will be a $50 billion (€44 billion) industry. There are apps competing to track our fertility and, in some cases, pregnancies. There are wearable devices to help predict ovulation, connected devices to help with pelvic floor issues, and wireless breast pumps to make things more convenient for new mothers, to name but a few.

It’s no longer about taking an existing product and making it “prettier” – or in many cases just pinker than the standard one. There are products now hitting the market that are designed with women in mind rather than as an afterthought.

At its simplest, there are the period trackers; apps that take the place of the rudimentary paper diary of before, adding in some extra knowhow to help women predict when their next period is due and when they are most fertile, as well as noting the physiological changes that are occurring.

 

sports medicine


Are MMP3, MMP8 and TIMP2 gene variants associated with anterior cruciate ligament rupture susceptibility?

Journal of Science & Medicine in Sport from

Objectives

Anterior cruciate ligament rupture (ACLR) is a common and severe knee injury which typically occurs as a result of sports participation, primarily via a non-contact mechanism. A number of extrinsic and intrinsic risk factors, including genetics, have been identified thus far. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteases (TIMPs) play a crucial role in extracellular matrix remodeling of ligaments and therefore the genes encoding MMPs and TIMPs are plausible candidates for investigation with ACL rupture risk.
Design

A case-control genetic association study was conducted on 229 (158 male) individuals with surgically diagnosed primary ACLR, ruptured through non-contact mechanisms and 192 (107 male) apparently healthy participants (CON) without any history of ACLR. All participants were physically active, unrelated, self-reported Caucasians.
Methods

All participants were genotyped for four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP): MMP3 (rs591058C/T, rs679620 G/A), MMP8 (rs11225395C/T), and TIMP2 (rs4789932 G/A) using standard PCR assays. Gene-gene interactions were inferred. Single-locus association analysis was conducted using the Chi-square test. SNP-SNP interaction effects were analysed using multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) method.
Results

Genotype frequencies did not significantly differ between cases and controls, however, the MMP3 rs679620 G and rs591058C alleles were significantly overrepresented in cases compared to controls (p = 0.021, OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.05-1.81).
Conclusions

These results support the hypothesis that genetic variation within MMP3 contributes to inter-individual susceptibility to non-contact ACLR. However, these results need to be explored further in larger, independent sample sets.

 

Cleveland Clinic Researcher Receives Grant for ACL Surgery Research

Lower Extremity Review Magazine from

Kurt P. Spindler, MD, of Cleveland Clinic and founder of the Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network (MOON) Group, has received a 5-year, $6 million grant to study techniques used for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. The grant, awarded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, supports a multi-center, randomized clinical trial aimed at determining if outcomes of a new surgical technique, Bridge-Enhanced® ACL Repair (BEAR®), are equal to or better than outcomes of the standard autograft patellar tendon reconstruction, at 6, 12, and 24 months post surgery. The BEAR procedure begins with drilling small tunnels to place a suture into the ACL fibers and stabilize the knee. The tissue-engineered scaffold, invented by Martha Murray, MD, at Boston Children’s Hospital, is implanted through a small incision in the knee. Surgeons then pull the stitched ACL tibial stump into the scaffold as the knee is extended. The patient’s own blood is applied to the scaffold to provide growth factors and stimulate healing.

“The current standard for ACL surgery is a complex reconstruction procedure that has a high rate of success in terms of return to sports and activities of daily living. But the failure rate is high in adolescents,” said Spindler, who is also the lead investigator. “There is some graft site morbidity and the propensity to develop early posttraumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) is not prevented.”

This research will build upon prior studies led by Murray that showed the BEAR technique to have similar results to ACL reconstruction in preclinical and early clinical studies.

 

Health-related Outcomes after a Youth Sport–related Knee Injury

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal from

Purpose Active youth are vulnerable to knee injury and subsequent osteoarthritis. Improved understanding of the association between health-related outcomes and history of joint injury could inform osteoarthritis prevention strategies. The purpose of this historical cohort study is to examine the association between youth sport–related knee injury and various clinical, physiological, behavioral, and functional health-related outcomes, 3–10 yr postinjury.

Methods Participants included 100 individuals who experienced a youth sport–related knee injury 3–10 yr earlier and 100 age-, sex-, and sport-matched uninjured controls. Outcomes include the following: Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), Intermittent and Constant Osteoarthritis Pain Score, body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI), weekly physical activity, estimated aerobic capacity, hip and knee muscle strength, and dynamic balance. Baseline characteristics were described. Multivariable regression models (95% confidence interval [CI]) were used to evaluate the association between injury history and each outcome, considering the influence of sex and time since injury.

Results Participant median age was 22 yr (range, 15–26 yr), and 55% were female. The injured group demonstrated poorer KOOS subscale scores, more total and intermittent pain, higher BMI (1.8 kg·m−2; 95% CI = 0.9–2.6), higher FMI (1.1 kg·m−2; 95% CI = 0.5–1.6), weaker knee extensor (−0.18 N·m·kg−1; 95% CI = −0.33 to −0.02) and flexor (−0.21 N·m·kg−1; 95% CI = −0.30 to −0.11) muscles, and poorer balance than controls. In the previously injured group, female sex was associated with poorer KOOS quality-of-life scores, knee flexor strength, and greater FMI, whereas longer time since injury was associated with poorer KOOS symptoms scores, knee extensor strength, and balance outcomes.

Conclusion Youth that suffer a sport-related knee injury demonstrate on average more negative health-related outcomes consistent with future osteoarthritis compared with uninjured matched controls 3–10 yr after injury. These negative outcomes differ by sex and time since injury.

 

analysis


Are Women Closing in on Men at the Boston Marathon?

Outside Online, Alex Hutchinson from

Back in 1992, scientists at UCLA made a surprising prediction in Nature. Since women’s marathon times were improving more quickly than men’s, they forecast that women would surpass men in 1998. While that didn’t come to pass, the idea that women might be closing the gap in endurance races persists, thanks to the feats of athletes like Jasmin Paris, the ultrarunner who shattered the overall course record in the 168-mile Montane Spine Race in Britain earlier this month, and Camille Herron, who beat the entire field while setting a women’s 24-hour running record in December.

But you can only learn so much from individual stories, no matter how remarkable. That’s where a new analysis in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research comes in.

 

Boo-Boo Bias? Adults Take Girls’ Pain Less Seriously

Study Finds from

Does gender play a role in how adults tend to children after suffering a boo-boo? A study by Yale psychologists find that people seem to take young girls’ pain less seriously than they would a boy.

The authors suggest cultural beliefs that “boys are more stoic” and “girls are more emotive” could be behind the behavior.

 

An Australian hockey analytics odyssey

The Ice Garden, Alyssa Longmuir from

I wish I could say that taking a league from one with delayed basic box scores to one that has a whole array of advanced stats takes a village.

In reality, it takes one person, three to four pieces of paper per game, some horrendously written code, and the willingness to accept that if you don’t do this then it’s not getting done. Possibly ever.

People may argue that there aren’t enough bodies or brains to compute stats in women’s hockey. This article is about refuting that idea.

 

Research shows boys engage in more vigorous physical activity at high school sports practices than girls.

Twitter, Aspen Institute – Sports from

One example is vigorous activity for track and field: boys 60%, girls 31%.

 

fairness


State group, with Harvard input, responds to proposed Title IX changes

Harvard Gazette from

With input from Harvard and other universities and colleges across the state, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM) submitted written comments this week to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), responding to its proposed changes to Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds.

“There are no greater priorities for Massachusetts colleges and universities than the well-being of their students, faculty, and staff, as well as the safety of their campuses,” said AICUM President Richard Doherty. “AICUM’s member institutions remain dedicated to providing a learning and working environment that is free from discrimination and harassment, including on the basis of sex, as contemplated by Title IX.”

The comprehensive comments submitted by AICUM called into question the ability of the DOE’s proposed regulations to provide for such an environment on campuses.

 

Johns Hopkins Faculty Data Highlight How Gender Disparities in Salary Add Up Over a Lifetime

Johns Hopkins Medicine, Newsroom from

When women medical school faculty make a few percent less per year than men, that means many tens of thousands of dollars less in lifetime wealth

 

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