Do Women Belong in Sport?

DO WOMEN BELONG IN SPORT? 

There is exponential growth in women’s sport; as a sector, in relation to participation and commercially. Girls and women are being inspired by the increasing visibility of world class performances and brands are diversifying their imagery and approach to promoting sport and fitness.

Broadly, however, the system remains finely tuned and optimised for men which does not cater for the physiology, anatomy and psychology of girls and women.

To enable women to optimise their health and performance, does there need to be a re-evaluation of this long-standing approach? If not, are we at risk of compromising the health and welfare of female athletes as well as their opportunity to fulfil their performance potential? 

In this session Baz and Emma will explore female physiology and female-specific psychosocial factors with emphasis on injury surveillance, training and wellbeing monitoring, concussion prevention and rehabilitation and kit design. 

The session will include discussion on:

• What needs to be considered when creating systems where girls and women truly belong
• Why females are up to 8 times more likely to have a non-contact ACL Injury
• How the Menstrual Cycle effects a females injury risk
• What the evidence is showing about rates of concussion and sub concussion in females
• How training and well-being monitoring can be designed with the female body in mind

The details of our event which will take place on Thursday 4th May in central London can be found here. 

SESSION SPEAKERS

Dr Emma Ross

Scientist, researcher and practitioner Dr Emma Ross is the former Head of Physiology at the English Institute of Sport. She led the UK High Performance System’s first ever strategic approach to Female Athlete Health with the SmartHER programme. Emma is behind several breakthrough initiatives that ensure active women - and their support teams - understand and support the female part of the female athlete. In 2021 she received the Sunday Times Sports Women of the Year Changemaker Award in recognition of her work to improve sport for women.

Baz Moffat

Moffat jumped into the boat and rowed straight onto the Great Britain national team. Over an impressive career she won several medals, including a silver at the 2007 World Championships. After Baz hung up her oars she launched a successful international coaching business. Specialising in pelvic health, Baz has helped hundreds of women – from pro athletes to new mums – tap greater health and happiness by understanding mind, body and the interplay of the two. Baz looks back fondly at her sporting career but recognises a lack of female-specific coaching limited her potential. Now a prominent voice in the women’s health movement, Baz wants to highlight and address the institutional gaps that stop women reaching their potential in sport and beyond. Baz is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Well HQ.

Mhairi Maclennan

Mhairi Maclennan is a Scottish long-distance runner from the Highlands of Scotland who’s represented Great Britain at European and World Championships over Cross-Country and Track running. She’s the current British Cross-Country Champion and 3 x Scottish Cross-Country Champion. Mhairi has been a part of gold-winning teams at the 2017 u23 European Cross-Country Championships, where she achieved a top 10 finish, and the 2019 European 10,000m Championships. After struggling with chronic illness over 2020 and 2021 she came back to retain her Scottish Cross-Country Championship title and win British Cross-Country Championships as well as running personal bests over 5k and 10k. 

Off the track, Mhairi campaigns and advocates for a safe and equitable sporting world where athlete welfare is prioritised. Early in 2021 she launched Kyniska Advocacy, a non-profit that campaigns for progressive policies to better protect, respect and celebrate women and girls in sport. Along with Co-Founder and fellow athlete, Kate Seary, the duo have successfully campaigned for lifetime bans for abusive coaches in athletics, run workshops for several organisations, created successful online campaigns around female athlete health and published their report, ‘Stamping out Sexual Violence in Sport’. Mhairi’s passion for creating a sporting world where women have a seat at the table has brought her to sitting on the board for Scottish Women in Sport and the Safeguarding Advisory Panel at UK Athletics where she endeavours to bring the athlete voice to the fore and drive change.

TICKETS

Earl Bird Tickets  are priced at £330.00 exc. of VAT and are available until 23:59 on Sunday 19 March 2023.

Our Group Ticket permits three tickets to be purchased for the price of two standard price tickets (which works out as £263.33 exc. of VAT per ticket). Please note that this offer is only applicable to standard ticket prices and all three attendees must be from the same organisation.

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES

Every year we host over 200 legal and sport professionals at our event. These conferences provide many opportunities for our attendees to network. We serve breakfast (hot drinks and pastries) during the registration period where attendees get an early opportunity to meet other professionals as well as during the two coffee breaks and the open buffet lunch. 

We also host a separate breakfast between 8am and 9am in association with Women in Sports Law (WISLaw), to encourage female profesionals to meet and share views (please note that the WISLaw breakfast is also open to male professionals if they wish to join).

And finally after the conference we will host a networking drinks reception in the hotel's bar.