Including women in athletic research will help everyone live longer
Media call
Who: Associate Professor Clare Minahan of Griffith University
What: Including women in athletic research will help everyone live longer
Where: MCG (entry via Gate 3)
When: 10.30am 17 October 2024
Contact: Seamus Bradley 0410 2456 902
RESEARCH into female athletic performance must increase dramatically to facilitate science making the breakthroughs that will help all humans to live longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives.
In addressing the leading sports medicine conference in Australasia at the MCG today, Associate Professor Clare Minahan of Griffith University says:
“The lack of research in female athletic performance means we are missing out on learning something vital about humanity’s potential to live longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives,” she says.
“If you look at worldwide sports where everyone on the planet can participate. The Australian women's swim team has been the most successful over a very long time, over 100 years of success.
“So what could we be learning from the Australian women's swim team? What is it about their resilience? What is it about the way they work together?
“We need to know.”
“Less than 10 per cent of sport performance research is performed exclusively on women and so our whole human species is missing out as a consequence of what we don’t know about our own potential”, Associate Professor Minahan says.
“For example, we thought athletes with European descent were the fastest marathon runners right up until the 1960 Olympics.
“All of a sudden investment was made into the optimisation of athletic performance in a marginalised group that was African and look what happened.”
Associate Professor Minahan says our understanding of humanity will progress exponentially if women are included equally in sports performance research.
“If you don't go to marginalised groups, you are missing out on understanding a lot more about human potential,” she says.
“While the sports narrative is about faster, higher, stronger there is more to human potential than those three attributes.
“It is now the case that the fastest athlete to complete the Appalachian Trail is female, but the narrative is not faster, higher, stronger and ultra-endurance.”
Associate Professor Minahan says including women equally in sports performance research will lead to new discoveries that will bring broad benefits for humanity and many of them will be surprising.
Research doesn’t always lead where we think it will, Associate Professor Minahan says.
“When scientists were looking for a new treatment for blood pressure they trialed Sildenafil. It worked OK for blood pressure but it was really good for something else that advanced human potential and happiness,” she says. “We know it today as Viagra.”
Associate Professor Clare Minahan is available for interview on Thursday 17 October 2024.
Media contact: Seamus Bradley | seamusbradley@gmail.com | 0410 256 902
About the conference:
Sports Medicine Australia and the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians are co-convening a four-day Conference at the MCG from Wednesday 16 October 2024.
The conference is dedicated to excellence in sports and exercise medicine, sports science and physical activity. More than 850 delegates, representing the multidisciplinary field of sports medicine, will be attending.
Link: https://events.sma.org.au/smaacsep2024
Program link: https://events.sma.org.au/smaacsep2024#/agenda?day=1&lang=en
Key Facts:
Researching women athletes would help everyone live longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives.
It’s not even properly understood how Australia’s most successful team, the women’s swim team, has been outperforming for a century.
Less than 10 per cent of sport performance research is performed exclusively on women.
About us:
About Sports Medicine Australia:
Sports Medicine Australia is a not-for-profit, member-based educational organisation. It is the peak multidisciplinary body for sports medicine, sports science and physical activity in Australia. SMA represents the professionals involved in these fields, ranging from medical practitioners and allied health professionals to sports trainers, academics, teachers and others.
Contact details:
Seamus Bradley
seamusbradley@gmail.com
0410 256 902
