Footballers from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds navigate complex intersections of sport, identity, and health in high-performance environments that are often structured around Western norms. This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of elite and subelite female footballers living in Australia ( n = 12), focusing on perceptions of health monitoring, nutrition, low energy availability, body image, and menstrual health. Semistructured interviews, analyzed thematically within a critical realist framework, revealed recurring barriers including cultural exclusion, identity conflict, microaggressions, and Western-centric fueling practices. Participants described pressures to conform to expectations of body composition and energy availability, namely, to maintain lean physiques and strict fueling practices, which frequently clashed with cultural beliefs around modesty, fertility, and nutrition. Many athletes also expressed discomfort with male staff handling sensitive health data and highlighted the importance of culturally responsive approaches to menstrual tracking and body composition assessments. Parental involvement in health-related decisions emerged as a key theme, reflecting intergenerational influences on medical autonomy. Although current literature suggests that low energy availability is more prevalent among Western athlete samples, this may reflect biases in detection and reporting rather than actual prevalence. Findings indicate that culturally diverse athletes may face heightened risk of low energy availability due to systemic neglect, cultural misalignment, and limited psychological safety within their sporting environments. To promote equitable care, football organizations must move beyond tokenistic inclusion and codesign culturally safe health practices that center the diverse realities of the athletes they serve.

Despite growing attention to athlete mental health, female athletes in male-dominated sports face systemic barriers shaped by intersecting identities, institutional neglect, and cultural stigma. This qualitative study employs an intersectional feminist framework and the theory of intersectional invisibility to examine the lived experiences of 24 elite female athletes across rugby, football (soccer), and taekwondo in Ghana, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Through in-depth interviews, findings reveal pervasive silencing, structural neglect, and a paradox of hypervisibility in performance yet institutional invisibility in mental health support. Participants described tokenistic interventions, gendered stigma, and reliance on informal peer networks due to inadequate systemic care. The study underscores the need for intersectional, gender-responsive reforms in sports governance, coaching practices, and mental health policy to address these inequities. By centering marginalized voices, this research advocates for structural and cultural transformation to ensure mental health equity in male-dominated sports environments.

Globally, women participate in sport at lower rates than men. Gaining a deeper understanding of the gendered experience of sport in country- and sport-specific contexts with consideration of men’s and women’s perspectives has been highlighted as key to continued efforts toward equality. This mixed-method study aimed to assess if, and how, athletes feel their gender impacts their experiences in the Irish sports of Gaelic games. Three hundred and sixty-nine (men = 177, women = 192) athletes completed an online survey asking whether their gender impacts playing experience. Fourteen athletes participated in online semistructured interviews. Logistic regression revealed the odds of reporting an impact of gender on playing experience were 27.6 times higher for women than men (odds ratio: 27.6, 95% CI [15.83, 48.36]), and the odds of reporting this impact as negative were 456 times higher for women than men (odds ratio: 456.00, 95% CI [55.50, 3,746.72]). Four themes relating to gendered experiences in Gaelic games were generated from interview data using reflexive thematic analysis: (a) underresourcing of women athletes , (b) undervaluing participation and success of women athletes , (c) unique social pressures and challenges for women athletes , and (d) shared athlete values across genders . Findings suggest gender negatively impacts the experience of sportswomen and increased awareness of the gendered sport experience is needed among sportsmen. Key stakeholders should prioritize policies and practices aimed at addressing gender-based inequalities including improved access to facilities, greater sport promotion, and mitigating appearance- and performance-related pressures for women. A focus on shared athlete values may encourage men’s involvement in equality efforts.

Ball sports, such as lacrosse, involve many change-of-direction, cutting, or landing skills, which challenge the athlete’s dynamic stability and contribute to the high prevalence of noncontact lower extremity injuries in these sports. Past research investigating mixed (male/female) samples of active adults or athletes across a range of sports have identified limb or directional differences in hop landing strategy, but fitness, anthropometrics, training backgrounds, and sex confounds likely influenced these findings. Applying those conclusions to a female athletic population, which is particularly at risk for noncontact injury, is, thus, limited. The purpose of this study was to explore hop landing kinetics in a homogenous sample of female collegiate lacrosse athletes. Twenty-eight healthy athletes from a single Division III lacrosse program performed medial and lateral hops onto a force platform using their self-reported dominant and nondominant limbs. Medial–lateral peak force and loading rate were higher in medial hops, and medial–lateral time to stabilization was longer in lateral hops. Meanwhile, worse balance, indicated by a longer time course of the stabilization task, was observed in the anterior–posterior and vertical components of the ground reaction force following laterally directed hops and in the nondominant limb. These limb and directional deficits can inform strength training programs intended to improve neuromuscular coordination.

Purpose : Optimal sleep is essential for supporting athletes’ health, performance and facilitating recovery. However, athletes’ sleep is impaired in both quality and quantity. Previous research has shown athletes’ sleep quality and quantity can be improved using sleep interventions; however, very few studies have evaluated sleep and investigated it among female athletes. Therefore, this exploratory study aimed to evaluate the sleep of adult female team-sport athletes over a match week in an ecological context and to assess the effects of a one-to-one sleep intervention (comprising both educational and practical components). Methods : Nine female rugby players completed a 2-week protocol including a sleep evaluation (PRE week) and an intervention (POST week). The first week was dedicated to sleep assessment via both actigraphy and self-report questionnaires, and during the second week, players received educational and practical sleep interventions. Results : During the PRE week, 88.9% of the participants were classified as poor sleepers compared with only 44% during the POST week. A significant positive effect of sleep interventions was particularly found on subjective sleep (from 10.3 ± 1.1 to 8.8 ± 1.8, p = .03, η 2 = .38) and psychological state (from 3.7 ± 0.6 to 2.9 ± 0.9, p = .002, η 2 = .55). Conclusion : These positive effects highlight the need for sleep among female athletes and the potential benefits of targeted sleep interventions, though confirmation in larger samples of athletic women is needed. This feasible and tailored approach could be effectively implemented among female team-sport athletes over the competitive season.

The topic of menstruation remains taboo or inadequately addressed in schools particularly in physical education. This article examines how French physical education teachers consider menstruation when working with young girls in secondary education. The findings highlight shared professional strategies and gestures among these teachers—such as encouraging physical activity and fostering sisterhood among students—as well as more isolated approaches. For all involved, managing menstruation in physical education represents a recurring professional challenge, largely due to the lack of specific training on the subject.

Biomechanical differences between overground and treadmill (TM) running have been described in literature. However, there are no previous studies which analyze strategies for equaling these biomechanical differences between running surfaces. This study analyzed the strategy of equaling the stride frequencies between surfaces in a group of 16 female well-trained endurance runners, who performed both overground and TM running at speeds between 9 and 21 km/hr. These runners performed TM running at the same speeds in which they were able to adapt their stride frequencies to those performed overground. Thus, only 9–15 km/hr were then analyzed in this study. The first result was that female runners showed significant differences in stride frequency, stride length, vertical displacement and mediolateral displacement between surfaces running at 9.3 and 15.1 km/hr (moderate effect sizes). The second and main result was that by equaling the stride frequencies from overground to TM running, these significant differences disappeared (trivial to small effect sizes). Besides, no differences were found between surfaces in biomechanical variables related to running cost, either before or after the stride frequency manipulation (trivial to small effect sizes). When needed, female endurance runners of the level recruited can resemble their running biomechanics between surfaces simply by means of performing the same stride frequency in both surfaces, without changes in the studied biomechanical variables related to running cost.

Objective : This study explored the experiences of female athletes performing heavy resistance exercise during pregnancy and postpartum (REX group) and reflected these against experiences of physically active women not engaging in heavy resistance exercise (REF group). Design : Secondary outcomes from a prospective, longitudinal study following two exercising groups of pregnant women through pregnancy and up to 12 months postpartum. Data were collected via questionnaires and analyzed using inductive content analysis. Results : Thirty-two women were included in the REX group and 17 were in the REF group. Of all participants, 35% reported receiving warnings against their usual training—most often from midwives. Although REX participants typically faced concerns related to heavy resistance exercise, REF participants also reported warnings, particularly about high-intensity exercise. Three key themes emerged from pregnancy responses: “training for two: joy, strength, and sanity through exercise”; “between warnings and worries: pregnant women’s struggle for reliable advice”; and “strength over strain: why resistance training works in pregnancy.” Two themes were identified postpartum: “new priorities, new physique” and “when experts fall silent.” Conclusion : Women training beyond standard health recommendations often encounter concerns from healthcare providers and others. Although the female athletes rely on personal experience, many express doubt and frustration due to the lack of tailored, evidence-based advice. Exercise, especially resistance exercise, was seen as vital for both mental and physical health, particularly when other forms of movement were limited by pregnancy or postpartum symptoms.

There is limited research on menstrual cycle symptoms (MCS) that can occur intermenstrually and the self-reported impact of these MCS. Using a mixed-methods approach, experiences of intermenstrual pelvic pain (IPP) were collected from 1,786 active women via an online anonymous survey between October and December 2023. Survey questions were informed by menstrual cycle research recommendations and qualitative research methodology. Differences in age, parity, and IPP between naturally menstruating participants and participants who were using a form of hormonal contraception were determined by independent t -test, Mann–Whitney U , and Pearson chi-square tests. Qualitative data from the open-ended questions were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results from the survey indicate that IPP had been experienced by 88.4% of participants. The majority reported that this moderately severe pain (5.52 ± 2.03) occurred on one side of the lower abdominal region and lasted for more than 12 hr. Themes in the qualitative research results included (a) identification of the physical and psychological symptoms experienced mid-cycle; (b) the perceived and self-reported impact of these symptoms on sport, exercise, and daily activities; and (c) the experiences of women with IPP when engaging with health care professionals. Our data suggests that IPP could contribute to negative mood states and have an impact on sport, exercise, and daily activities. Women felt dismissed by health care professionals and reported discontent with the medical support provided for their IPP experience. The results highlight the importance of considering individual MCS and the impact that these MCS may have on active women.