The Female Athlete theme comprises a multidisciplinary research group focusing on closing the research gap in women’s sport. The group has a strong applied focus and performs inter-disciplinary research, enterprise work for clubs, manufacturer, and organisations as well as outreach and knowledge sharing.
Theme leads
Objective
The group harnesses the Faculty of Sport, Allied Health and Performance Science’s reputation for research excellence across disciplines including sports medicine, nutrition, psychology, biomechanics, sports technology, and physiology to:
- understand, manage, and optimise female athlete specific health and performance parameters
- support individuals, institutions, and organisations globally to improve female athletes’ health and performance
- develop knowledge transfer mechanisms to share scientific research results with female athletes and professionals working with this population.
Current PhD students include:
- Elaine Mullally (noncontact knee injury mechanism in adult recreation netball players)
- Hannah Owen (tackling the menstrual cycle taboo in women’s rugby).
Completed PhD students include:
All research degree students at St Mary’s are part of the Doctoral College. If you are a prospective research student interested in female athlete research please submit an online enquiry form with details of your proposal or contact one the theme leads.
Members of the group have worked with:
- Arsenal FC
- Aspetar Medical Hospital
- Bodyform
- Boston Children’s Hospital
- British Athletics
- Centre for Sleep Health and Human Performance
- Chelsea FC
- Concave
- The Danish Football Federation
- England Athletics
- English Institute of Sport
- The European Club Association
- FIFA
- FitrWoman
- The Football Association
- The German Football Federation
- The Harvard Medical School
- INSEP
- Loughborough University
- Massachusetts General HospitalOrreco
- Nike
- SCA Care of Life
- Tottenham Hotspur
- UCL
- University of Portsmouth
- University of Chichester
- West Ham United FC.
Our research regularly receives attention from the media. These are a selected few.
- Mullally, E., Atack, A. C., Glaister, M., Clark, N. C. & Brown, N. (2023). A cross-sectional retrospective survey of injury situation and prevalence in female recreational netball players with a focus on knee injuries. Physical Therapy in Sport.
- Shafik, A., Bennett, P., Rosenbloom, C., Okholm Kryger, K., Carmody, S. and Power, J. (2022). Concussion attitudes and knowledge in the English FA Women’s Super League & Championship. Science and Medicine in Football.
- Bruinvels, G., Hackney, A. C., & Pedlar, C. R. (2022). Menstrual Cycle: The Importance of Both the Phases and the Transitions Between Phases on Training and Performance. Sports Medicine, 1-4.
- Norris, M., O'Neill, A., Blackmore, T., Mills, C., Sanchez, A., Brown, N., & Wakefield-Scurr, J. (2022). Can we predict the neutral breast position using the gravity-loaded breast position, age, anthropometrics and breast composition data?. Clinical Biomechanics, 99, 105760.
- Hoey, C., Wang, A., Raymond, R.J., Ulagenthian, A., and Okholm Kryger, K. (2022). Foot morphological variations between different ethnicities and sex: a systematic review. Footwear Science.
- Okholm Kryger, K., Thomson, A., Tang, A., Brown, N., Bruinvels, G., Rosenbloom, C., Carmody, S., Williamson, L., Datson, N., Jobson, E., and Mehta, R. Technology in elite women’s football. Progressions made and barriers faced. Sports Engineering.
- Datson, N. and Okholm Kryger, K. (2022). Performance considerations in women's football. Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal, 11(25), pp. 36-42.
- Pinel, C., Mehta, R. and Okholm Kryger, K. (2022). The impact and perceived barriers menstruation present to football participation in amateur female footballers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 40:17, pp. 1950-1963.
- Okholm Kryger, K., Wang, A., Mehta, R., Impellizzeri, F., Massey, A., Harrison, M., Glendinning, R., & McCall, A. (2022). Can we evidence-base injury prevention and management in women's football? A scoping review. Research in sports medicine, 1–16.
- Read, P., Mehta, R., Rosenbloom, C., Jobson, E. and Okholm Kryger, K. (2022). Elite female football players’ perception of the impact of their menstrual cycle stages on their football performance. A semi-structured interview-based study. Science and Medicine in Football.
- Thomson, A, Wannop, JW, and Okholm Kryger, K (2021). Hey coach/doctor/physio/podiatrist/dad/mum: what football boot is best for me. Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal, 10, 268-272.
- Nassis, G.P., Brito, J., Tomás, R., Heiner-Møller, K., Harder, P., Okholm Kryger, K. and Krustrup, P. (2022) Elite women’s football: evolution and challenges for the years ahead, the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 32(1), pp. 7-11.
- Rosenbloom, C., Chatterjee, R., Chu, W., Broman, D and Okholm Kryger, K. (2021). Sport-related concussion return-to-play practices of medical team staff in elite football in the United Kingdom. Science and Medicine in Football.
- Angioi, M, Hodgson, K. and Okholm Kryger, K. (2021). An updated systematic review of turnout position assessment protocols used in dance medicine and science research. Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, 25(1), pp. 55-71.
- Rosenbloom, C., Chu, W., Chatterjee, R., and Okholm Kryger, K. (2021). Sport-related concussion practices of medical team staff in professional football in the United Kingdom. Science and Medicine in Football.
- Hussain, E., Mehta, R., Angioi, M. and Okholm Kryger, K. (2020). In-shoe plantar pressure loading in female and male football: a systematic review, Footwear Science, 12(3), pp. 217-233.
- Ackerman, K. E., Holtzman, B., Cooper, K. M., Flynn, E. F., Bruinvels, G., Tenforde, A. S., Popp, K. L., Simpkin, A. J., & Parziale, A. L. (2018). Low energy availability surrogates correlate with health and performance consequences of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). British Journal of Sports Medicine.
- Pedlar, C., Bruinvels, G., Brugnara, C., & Burden, R. (2018). Invited review: Iron Balance and Iron Supplementation for the Female Athlete, a Practical Approach. European Journal of Sports Science, 18(2), pp. 295 – 305.
For more Research conducted from this group please visit Google Scholar.