/s3/static.nrc.nl/bvhw/files/2023/11/data108442213-dcdcad.jpg "Female athletes are not little men, so more scientific research is needed")
As the daughter of an oncologist, medical science never appealed to me. Except when it comes to its social and psychological impact. Athletes only have one body. How they handle that body can make or break them — and I’m not just talking about their career.
For example, last summer I wrote an article about the “fear of information leakage” among tennis players at Wimbledon. I was saddened to hear how stressed some people became when they got their period during those important two weeks. Because until the last edition of the grass tournament, the organization made them wear white clothes, even their underwear. This does something for your mind and performance.
During the same period I wrote about football players’ foot pain. Almost all soccer shoes available on the market today are designed for men. This is why women wear shoes that don’t fit them. Some people put on a “hard” sock, others put on an insole, and there have been cases where players have cut a hole in the back of their kicks for added comfort. And also in the final tournaments.
Fortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that female athletes are not small men, just as a woman’s heart (in the non-anatomical sense) is not a man’s heart. This year, for the first time at the Women’s World Cup, injury monitors – doctors who watch matches on a monitor – were used to assess the severity of injuries, such as head injuries. The observers had a direct line to the team doctors.
“Concerns about heading and concussions in footballers” is written above an NOS interview with scientists Jort Pfefferberg and March Königs. According to them, these concerns about harmful effects on women have to do with the immune system and hormone balance. But what exactly? More research was needed for this.
Incomparable greatness
Outside “Invisible Female Athletes” – The Sexuality Data Gap in Sports and Exercise Science Research (2021) show that only 6 (!) percent of scientific research in sport and exercise focuses entirely on women, compared to 31 percent for men. “Because of physiology […] “In order to better understand women, it is critical that women are better represented in future studies,” the researchers wrote. She wondered whether their findings did not justify a more rigorous evaluation.
I called Christine Yu, Best-selling author Up to Speed: The Pioneering Science of Mathematics. She said sports had traditionally been a male affair, and that although women’s sports were growing in popularity, they were still unparalleled great – which explains the lack of interest from scholars. In addition, she said that directors of sports leagues and federations are mostly men. “They don’t realize that some women perform poorly if they have to wear white clothes during their period.”
I thought it would be a good idea to see what’s going well, if only to keep the headlines from commenting once this newsletter arrives in my inbox. First of all, there are a few of the scientists nominated by Christine Yu who have done pioneering research in the field of women and sports (top): Katherine Ackerman, who researches injuries and menstruation in the US; Kirsty Elliott Seal, who researches hormonal contraception in England, and Abby Smith, who researches menopause in the United States. Google them by all means.
European Advisory Group
I would like to highlight Claire Bloomfield, Head of Women’s Football at the European Club Association, the organization that represents the interests of professional European clubs within UEFA. She founded the Women’s High Performance Advisory Group in 2021. The group consists of doctors, physiotherapists, nutritionists and sports scientists from thirty clubs, including Ajax, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Rangers, Manchester United and Atletico Madrid. Professionals who are usually rivals of each other, but have joined forces to obtain high-quality scientific research on real-life professional football players.
Such as long-term research into the menstrual cycle. Fifteen clubs, with 320 players and 46 employees, are participating in this study. It will enter the second phase early next year. “With the lack of knowledge that clubs have now, they are developing training methods,” Bloomfield says during a Zoom call. “Players use apps and trackers to determine what stage of the cycle they are in. But no one knows exactly how much that cycle affects performance. More research is needed for this.
Other issues that the group is currently studying or would like to investigate in the future include good footwear, the effects of pregnancy, injuries (particularly to the knee), and the psychological stress that players experience as a result of the rapid growth of their sport. Bloomfield says the clubs are so enthusiastic that there are plans to set up a high performance advisory group for men’s football. “While many previously thought it was impossible for clubs to share their research and best practice with each other.”
When I asked Bloomfield how long it would be before the infamous 6% of scientific research related to mathematics was significantly increased, she started to laugh. “Too long,” she says. “But comprehensive research takes a lot of time. It is better to change things radically and slowly, rather than quickly and half-heartedly for the sake of the image.
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