Female Sports Science newsletter – February 10, 2019

Female Sports Science news articles, blog posts and research papers for February 10, 2019

 

athletes


Feats of Lindsay Vonn in skiing and Maya Moore in basketball may never be matched

Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jim Souhan from

At the end of a week that included National Girls and Women in Sports Day, let’s recognize the importance of Lindsey Vonn and Maya Moore.

 

Emily Sisson Will Outrest and Outrun You

Outside Online, Martin Fritz Huber from

… After a successful college career that included an individual NCAA title in the 5,000-meters in 2015, Sisson turned pro later the same year. At first, the transition from competitive collegiate athlete to full-on professional was a little disorientating, since Sisson suddenly found herself with a lot more free time. Along with learning to adopt a more professional approach to her sport by incorporating things like core work and massage therapy, this meant learning to take it easy.

“Some people like being really busy and having things to do and can get pretty restless. But I’m pretty good at resting in between runs. I’m fine with that,” Sisson says.

 

Alysa Liu is youngest U.S. figure skating champion

San Jose Mercury News, Bay Area News Group, Elliott Almond from

… Liu is perhaps America’s most promising skater since Michelle Kwan, who at 13 finished second at the 1994 championships in Detroit that are best remembered for the attack on Nancy Kerrigan and the soap-operatic Tonya Harding saga.

The only whack this week has been the sound of skaters hitting the ice when mistiming their jumps.

But not Liu, who acknowledged being nervous in her senior-level debut a year after winning the junior title at age 12.

 

Naomi Osaka’s Australian Open Win Broke the Status Quo

The Atlantic, Kevin Craft from

… Naomi Osaka’s steely 7–6 (2), 5–7, 6–4 defeat of Petra Kvitová in the 2019 Australian Open final on Saturday portends an irreparable break from the status quo. The women’s tour will remain replete with exceptional players, many of whom, like Kvitová, have the talent to contend for grand slams. But Osaka’s victory, her second straight grand-slam title, confirms her status as a bona fide superstar capable of rivaling Williams’s preeminence. (Osaka beat Williams in the final of last year’s U.S. Open, an outcome that was unfortunately overshadowed by the umpire’s very poor decision making and the ensuing controversy over Williams’s behavior.) Women’s tennis is now a two-headed monster with Osaka set to take over the No. 1 ranking, Williams unlikely to fade away, and the rest of a deep field still lurking.

 

With speed and energy, Sylvie Wallin creating a buzz at Princeton

The Ice Garden, gfundaro from

… Wallin was sidelined for six games and decked out in a fresh cast — her color of choice? “obviously hot pink” — after suffering a broken hand in a game against Syracuse in November. But she’s back in the line-up now and provides needed depth and experience to one of the nation’s top teams.

“She really analyzes a lot of things, and she’s become probably one of the biggest leaders in the junior class,” Morey said. “I’ll sometimes put her with one of our freshmen D to make them feel a little bit of stability. She’s just been an anchor back there.”

From the moment she came to campus, though, Wallin didn’t want to be put in a box because of hockey. She was intent on branching out and keen to make a difference in other areas, joining a sorority and stepping outside of the athletics bubble to make friends with students who don’t play a sport. And she dove right into her academics, too.

 

Pro runner Tina Muir — ‘I want to make the sport about joy, not the finish line’

espnW, Amanda Loudin from

Celebrating daughter Bailey’s 1-year birthday in January served as a victory lap for Tina Muir, an elite runner who earned 11 All-American honors at Ferris State University before going pro. In 2017, Muir announced she was taking a break from the sport to increase her odds of becoming pregnant. After nine years with amenorrhea — lack of menstruation — Muir was worried that running was preventing her from becoming a mother.

Now, Muir, 30, is back on the competitive circuit, albeit in a different way. We caught up with her to chat motherhood, running and the launch of her new book, “Overcoming Amenorrhea.”

 

training


A dozen UH women soccer players sidelined with serious medical…

Click2Houston, Mario Diaz from

… a concerned parent shared a message from the UH athletic director alerting parents of three positive tests. Subsequent testing identified in at least nine more cases, according to one player who was hospitalized.

The team’s coach, Diego Bocanegra, would not talk about his players’ conditions in a call with Channel 2 Investigates but did admit his strength and conditioning coach is on the outs with the program.

“As of right now, Minor Bowens does not work with the soccer team any longer,” Bocanegra said.

 

Why so many fast women?

Fast Women blog from

Women’s Running published an article last week about why there are so many “fast women” (specifically in the marathon, in the U.S.) right now, and not surprisingly, I have opinions about this.

First I’ll go through their points, then add a few more.

It’s a generational thing. They point out that those who are reaching their prime today grew up after 1984, when Joan Benoit Samuelson won the first Olympic marathon for women. That is true, but it’s been true for a while now. I think in general, the farther we get from the more sexist ways of our past, the more women’s sports are going to thrive.

There’s still a lot of room for growth, and I see this all the time as a parent—boys still dominating sports on the playground, and more sports-themed onesies for boys. There will continue to be room for growth in all sports until women’s sports get as much coverage and fan support as men’s sports.

 

How does menstruation affect my muscle performance?

Popular Science, Claire Maldarelli from

Halfway through training for my first marathon this past summer, I lost my period.

I wasn’t that surprised. It had happened before, once at the beginning of college and again in my early 20s. Each came at a time when I increased my athletic endeavors, but what surprised me most were the seesawing opinions of the medical professionals I told: One was extremely concerned, another not at all, and the third gave me the answer that inspired this article: “I don’t think we really know what the effects are yet.” How can that be?

Today, more women than ever participate in sports. As Mother Jones points out, in 1972, just 1 in 27 high school girls participate in sports. As of 2012, 2 in 5 girls did. Yet we know little about the effects that natural hormonal fluctuations have on muscle performance or what happens to those cycles—and our health—when we work out.

 

Older women’s brains look similar to younger men’s

Quartz, Katherine Ellen Foley from

… by using brain scans and machine learning, the Washington University team found that women’s brains appear to continue to create more fuel as adults than do men—at all ages, from their 20s into their 80s. The researchers looked at positron emission tomography, or PET, scans of 205 healthy people between the ages of 20 and 82. These scans measured levels of oxygen, glucose (sugar), and blood flow in the brain to approximate how much energy the participant’s brain was using.

The team then used the male brain scans to train a machine-learning algorithm how to guess age based on metabolic activity. When the team showed the algorithm images of women’s brains, it guessed those women were an average of 3.8 years younger than they actually were.

 

Nationwide Injury Prevention is On Our Side

Sports Medicine Research: In the Lab & In the Field, Nicole Cattano from

Take Home Message: The implementation of an injury prevention program nationwide was related to a reduction in knee injuries among soccer players, especially females.

 

technology


Ida Sports is on a Mission to Create the Ideal Football Boots for Women

Bullpen (AU) from

… In terms of Australian grassroots participation, football (soccer) has become the number one participation sport for women and girls. Good boots geared for high performance is vital for this to continue, and with the company having raised nearly $30,000 in a crowdfunding campaign, they are close to full production.

It’s been a transformative 12 months for Ida Sports as the business looks to capitalise on a problem that hasn’t been fully tackled.

In this conversation we spoke to the company’s co-founder Ben Sandhu.

 

Lisa Strasman ’01 is de-stressing recruitment for student-athletes

Yale University, YaleNews from

… Following her pro hockey experience, Strasman worked in an entry-level position at a startup — Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) — whose mission was to streamline the recruiting process, making it easier for coaches to find promising high school athletes, and for the athletes and their parents to best understand their options and where they were most likely to find their own happy endings. Essentially, she says, the company was looking to de-stress the recruitment process, particularly for student-athletes.

When Strasman joined NCSA, they had 20-30 employees. She’s now the president and COO overseeing 750 employees. “The ultimate goal is to help student-athletes achieve their dreams,” Strasman says. This includes helping students with a recruitment profile and a highlight video, providing feedback, connecting them with college coaches, and advising them on where they are most likely to find success.

Strasman says college coaches want to connect with the players and understand their level of commitment. “They want to know a kid is serious and committed to the process,” she says.

 

sports medicine


Women shoulder greater injury burden at Australian Open

Australian Catholic University from

As tennis demands more from its players, an Australian Catholic University study has revealed it is women who pay a greater physical toll at the Australian Open.

The research, published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, revealed the punishing nature of professional tennis, particularly for women who sustained 35 per cent more injuries than their male counterparts.

 

Gender Bias in Medicine — the CJSM podcast with Dr. Esther Choo

Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine Blog, James MacDonald from

We are excited to share the first CJSM podcast of 2019 with you. Special guest Esther Choo M.D., M.P.H. joins us to discuss issues of gender bias in medicine: “From Mansplaining to Bromotion — How We Can Move the Needle on Gender Bias in Sports Medicine.”

 

Gender-Specific Risk Factor Profiles for Patellofemoral Pain. – PubMed – NCBI

Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine from

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the association between selected biomechanical variables and risk of patellofemoral pain (PFP) in males and females.
DESIGN:

Prospective cohort.
SETTING:

US Service Academies.
PARTICIPANTS:

Four thousand five hundred forty-three cadets (1727 females and 2816 males).
ASSESSMENT OF RISK FACTORS:

Three-dimensional biomechanics during a jump-landing task, lower-extremity strength, Q-angle, and navicular drop.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Cadets were monitored for diagnosis of PFP during their enrollment in a service academy. Three-dimensional hip and knee kinematic data were determined at initial contact (IC) and at 50% of the stance phase of the jump-landing task. Logistic regression analyses were performed for each risk factor variable in males and females (P < 0.05). RESULTS:

Less than 10 degrees of hip abduction at IC [odds ratio (OR) = 1.86, P = 0.03] and greater than 10 degrees of knee internal rotation at 50% of the stance phase (OR = 1.71, P = 0.02) increased the risk of PFP in females. Greater than 20 degrees of knee flexion at IC (OR = 0.47, P < 0.01) and between 0 and 5 degrees of hip external rotation at 50% of the stance phase (OR = 0.52, P = 0.04) decreased the risk of PFP in males. No other variables were associated with risk of developing PFP (P > 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS:

The results suggest males and females have differing kinematic risk factor profiles for the development of PFP.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE:

To most effectively reduce the risk of developing PFP, the risk factor variables specific to males (decreased knee flexion and increased hip external rotation) and females (decreased hip abduction and increased knee internal rotation) should be addressed in injury prevention programs.

 

I just tore my ACL – Do I really need surgery?Part 2: To reconstruct, or not to reconstruct? That is the question…

Nicole Surdyka from

Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of early ACL reconstruction or to take arms against a surgical procedure and do rehab alone, instead.

Ok, maybe this isn’t exactly what Hamlet said, but you get the point.

In Part 1: Expectations vs Reality, we saw that only a little over half of athletes who undergo ACL Reconstruction (ACLR) return to their previous level of activity. Furthermore, we know that up to a third of athletes who undergo ACLR end up injuring their graft or tearing the other ACL, usually within the first 2 years of returning to sport. This begs the question of whether it is even worth having the surgery in the first place.

 

nutrition


Marketing sports nutrition to the female athlete: ‘Don’t just pink it and shrink it,’ says expert

Nutra Ingredients, Adi Menayang from

Women have been socialized with expectations that often contradict with athletic fitness, according to one expert. Sports nutrition can help create change in this area.

 

Gender and nutrition: Canadian knowledge partnership seeks to close the data gap

Nutrition International from

A new collaboration between Nutrition International (NI), the University of Toronto and the Campbell Collaboration will strengthen the availability and use of high-quality, gender-sensitive data to improve nutrition for women, young children and adolescent girls in low-income countries.

The partnership will receive $750,000 CAD over two years to develop stronger and easier-to-use gender equality indicators of nutrition program delivery and performance. The new tools will be useful to generate timelier and better-quality data to guide program managers of gender sensitive nutrition programs in several countries. This funding was granted through the newly-launched Canadian Collaborative for Global Health ― an initiative of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) with support from Global Affairs Canada ― which connects civil society organizations and research institutions in meaningful partnerships to tackle difficult health challenges around the globe.

 

analysis


Unmixing the Gender Gap in Mixed Doubles

Jeff Sackmann, Heavy Topspin blog from

Doubles has long been a sort of final frontier in tennis analytics. Double is interesting, at least in part, for the same reason that all team sports are compelling–contributions can come from either player, or a combination of the two. From an analytics perspective, that poses a challenge: Can we isolate what each player brings to the court? I’ve tried to do so with my doubles Elo ratings, but that method relies on players changing partners. It’s not possible to identify how much each half contributed simply by looking at match results.

The problem, as usual, is limited data availability. To know how much value to assign to each player, we need to know what he or she did, even at the basic level of aces, double faults, winners, and errors.

 

WSF releases analysis of female representation in PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Games

Women's Sports Foundation, The She Network from

One year ago, the world’s top winter athletes gathered in South Korea for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Now, the Women’s Sports Foundation has published in-depth research on female representation in the Games in its report “Women in the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: An Analysis of Participation, Leadership and Media Coverage.”

The study, which analyzes the number of women competing in the Games, working in the Olympic Movement, and the coverage surrounding them, is the sixth report of its kind and follows the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games study. The findings of the report are especially timely given that Republican senator Cory Gardner introduced the “Strengthening of the U.S. Olympics Act” on Jan. 15, which, if passed, would see a Congressional committee evaluate and recommend policy and structural changes within the United States Olympic Committee. As part of National Girls & Women in Sports Day on Feb. 6, the Women’s Sports Foundation’s CEO Deborah Antoine, staff and champion athletes will be in Washington D.C. to lobby for safety and equity in athletics.

 

fairness


Closing The Branding Gap Between Male And Female Athletes

Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Today from

… Recent Research from the Department of Health and Kinesiology in the Texas A&M University College of Education and Human Development aims to demystify why female athletes do not stack up to their male counterparts in building profitable personal brands.

“Serena Williams is the top female athlete earner, but she still makes less than the bottom 10 men in the top 100 earners list,” Dr. Natasha Brison, sport management assistant professor, said.

 

Review finds no ‘inequitable treatment’ in University of Iowa athletics after $6.5 million settlement

The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA), Vanessa Miller from

A review of how well the University of Iowa Athletics Department implements its employment policies — coming nearly two years since the UI paid out millions in discrimination lawsuits — has uncovered no “inequitable treatment of applicants or employees on the basis of protected class,” the university said Thursday.

“Multiple employees expressed a desire for more diversity in the Athletics Department, but none had personally experienced harassment or discrimination on the basis of protected class in the course of their employment,” according to a 14-page report from Fredrikson & Byron P.A.

In late 2017, the UI hired the Des Moines law firm to review its employment policies and practices after a Polk County jury earlier that year awarded former UI Associate Athletics Director Jane Meyer $1.43 million based on her accusations the UI discriminated against her based on gender and sexual orientation.

 

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