Academic literature on the topic 'Elite women athletes'

Representation of Hispanics/Latinas in intercollegiate athletics is lacking. During the 2014-2015 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic season, only 2.2 percent of all female Division I student-athlete’s identified as Hispanic or Latina (NCAA, 2015). This low percentage of Hispanic/Latina female participants calls into question how these young women become involved in athletics and sustain their involvement within sport. While previous research has examined the socialization processes of youth athletes and parents of youth athlete participants, there is little research aimed at examining these processes for elite-level athlete participants (Dorsch, Smith, & McDonough, 2015; Greendorfer, Blinde, & Pellegrini, 1986;). Thus, the aim of this current study was to examine the potential factors that may have contributed to consistent sport participation for an elite group of Hispanic/Latina female athletes throughout their youth and collegiate careers. Participants for this study identified as current NCAA Division I Hispanic/Latina female student-athletes. Results showed that family, specifically parents and siblings, contributed to socializing Hispanic/Latina athletes into sport, while family and coaches contributed to the persistence of their athletic endeavors. Findings also show a sense of cultural indifference, youth coaches who invested in the participants long-term, and a significant involvement of the patriarch of the family in their athletic success.

Objective: Prior to the implementation of the blood steroidal module of the Athlete Biological Passport, we measured the serum androgen levels among a large population of high-level female athletes as well as the prevalence of biochemical hyperandrogenism and some disorders of sex development (DSD). Methods and Results: In 849 elite female athletes, serum T, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, androstenedione, SHBG, and gonadotrophins were measured by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry high resolution or immunoassay. Free T was calculated. The sampling hour, age, and type of athletic event only had a small influence on T concentration, whereas ethnicity had not. Among the 85.5% that did not use oral contraceptives, 168 of 717 athletes were oligo- or amenorrhoic. The oral contraceptive users showed the lowest serum androgen and gonadotrophin and the highest SHBG concentrations. After having removed five doped athletes and five DSD women from our population, median T and free T values were close to those reported in sedentary young women. The 99th percentile for T concentration was calculated at 3.08 nmol/L, which is below the 10 nmol/L threshold used for competition eligibility of hyperandrogenic women with normal androgen sensitivity. Prevalence of hyperandrogenic 46 XY DSD in our athletic population is approximately 7 per 1000, which is 140 times higher than expected in the general population. Conclusion: This is the first study to establish normative serum androgens values in elite female athletes, while taking into account the possible influence of menstrual status, oral contraceptive use, type of athletic event, and ethnicity. These findings should help to develop the blood steroidal module of the Athlete Biological Passport and to refine more evidence-based fair policies and recommendations concerning hyperandrogenism in female athletes.

Introduction: High performance female athletes may be a risk group for the development of urinary incontinence due to the imbalance of forces between the abdomen and the pelvis. Pelvic floor physiotherapy may be a useful treatment in these patients. Objectives: (1) To identify the scientific evidence for pelvic floor (PF) dysfunctions that are associated with urinary incontinence (UI) in high-performance sportswomen. (2) To determine whether pelvic floor physiotherapy (PT) corrects UI in elite female athletes. Materials and methods: Meta-analysis of published scientific evidence. The articles analyzed were found through the following search terms: (A) pelvic floor dysfunction elite female athletes; (B) urinary incontinence elite female athletes; (C) pelvic floor dysfunction elite female athletes physiotherapy; (D) urinary incontinence elite female athletes physiotherapy. Variables studied: type of study, number of individuals, age, prevalence of urinary incontinence described in the athletes, type of sport, type of UI, aspect investigated in the articles (prevalence, response to treatment, etiopathogenesis, response to PT treatment, concomitant health conditions or diseases. Study groups according to the impact of each sport on the PF: G1: low-impact (noncompetitive sports, golf, swimming, running athletics, throwing athletics); G2: moderate impact (cross-country skiing, field hockey, tennis, badminton, baseball) and G3: high impact (gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, ballet, aerobics, jump sports (high, long, triple and pole jump)), judo, soccer, basketball, handball, volleyball). Descriptive analysis, ANOVA and meta-analysis. Results: Mean age 22.69 years (SD 2.70, 18.00–29.49), with no difference between athletes and controls. Average number of athletes for each study was 284.38 (SD 373,867, 1–1263). The most frequent type of study was case-control (39.60%), followed by cross-sectional (30.20%). The type of UI was most often unspecified by the study (47.20%), was stress UI (SUI, 24.50%), or was referred to as general UI (18.90%). Studies on prevalence were more frequent (54.70%), followed by etiopathogenesis (28.30%) and, lastly, on treatment (17.00%). In most cases sportswomen did not have any disease or concomitant pathological condition (77.40%). More general UI was found in G1 (36.40%), SUI in G2 (50%) and unspecified UI in G3 (63.64%). In the meta-analysis, elite athletes were found to suffer more UI than the control women. In elite female athletes, in general, physiotherapy contributed to gain in urinary continence more than in control women (risk ratio 0.81, confidence interval 0.78–0.84)). In elite female athletes, former elite female athletes and in pregnant women who regularly engage in aerobic activity, physiotherapy was successful in delivering superior urinary continence compared to the control group. The risk of UI was the same in athletes and in the control group in volleyball female athletes, elite female athletes, cross-country skiers and runners. Treatment with PT was more effective in control women than in gymnastics, basketball, tennis, field hockey, track, swimming, volleyball, softball, golf, soccer and elite female athletes. Conclusions: There is pelvic floor dysfunction in high-performance athletes associated with athletic activity and urinary incontinence. Eating disorders, constipation, family history of urinary incontinence, history of urinary tract infections and decreased flexibility of the plantar arch are associated with an increased risk of UI in elite female athletes. Pelvic floor physiotherapy as a treatment for urinary incontinence in elite female athletes, former elite female athletes and pregnant athletes who engage in regular aerobic activity leads to a higher continence gain than that obtained by nonathlete women.

The aim of this study was to quantify peak age and improvements over the preceding years to peak age in elite athletic contestants according to athlete performance level, sex, and discipline. Individual season bests for world-ranked top 100 athletes from 2002 to 2016 (14,937 athletes and 57,049 individual results) were downloaded from the International Association of Athletics Federations’ website. Individual performance trends were generated by fitting a quadratic curve separately to each athlete’s performance and age data using a linear modeling procedure. Mean peak age was typically 25–27 y, but somewhat higher for marathon and male throwers (∼28–29 y). Women reached greater peak age than men in the hurdles and middle- and long-distance running events (mean difference, ±90% CL: 0.6, ±0.3 to 1.9, ±0.3 y: small to moderate). Male throwers had greater peak age than corresponding women (1.3, ±0.3 y: small). Throwers displayed the greatest performance improvements over the 5 y prior to peak age (mean [SD]: 7.0% [2.9%]), clearly ahead of jumpers, long-distance runners, hurdlers, middle-distance runners, and sprinters (3.4, ±0.2% to 5.2, ±0.2%; moderate to large). Similarly, top 10 athletes showed greater improvements than top 11–100 athletes in all events (1.0, ±0.9% to 1.8, ±1.1%; small) except throws. Women improved more than men in all events (0.4, ±0.2% to 2.9, ±0.4%) except sprints. This study provides novel insight on performance development in athletic contestants that are useful for practitioners when setting goals and evaluating strategies for achieving success.

Sex-segregated sports require governing bodies to clearly and accurately place athletes in two categories, one labeled “men” and the other labeled “women.” Sports governing bodies such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) used sex testing procedures to attempt to verify the sex of athletes competing in women’s events. In 2004, the IOC introduced the Stockholm Consensus to regulate the inclusion of, primarily, male-to-female transsexual athletes, to compete at the Olympic Games. These governing bodies, and others, are dealing with society’s basic categorization of humans and thus are entangled in attempts to scientifically and medically define sex. This article will focus on the history and implications of gender-verification testing and gender policy on notions of “fair play” and athlete eligibility.

The purpose of the research was to study the transitional experiences of elite female athletes who are going through the process of athletic retirement. Using a life history approach, six former and six current athletes in Hong Kong were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were utilized based on the Schlossberg’s (1981, 1984) transition model. Data were analyzed using typology and constant comparison methods. Diversity and commonality in the experiences of women withdrawing from elite sports competition were found. The life history approach was effective in illustrating the ways in which Hong Kong female athletes feel and think about career end, with a transition from competition to retirement evident as part of career passing. Content analysis of interviews revealed several salient themes related to sports retirement. Key distinctions across projected and experienced retirement were associated with a woman’s being an immigrant athlete, entering early into sport, and pursuing an education. Athlete status also affected transition to retirement and lifestyle after an elite sports career.

The aims of the study were: (i) to describe the work integration after retirement in elite athletes, (ii) to compare the working integration of women and men, and Olympic and non-Olympic athletes, and (iii) to specify the factors that affect their employment status and current monthly income. A total of 476 former elite athletes were surveyed. Non-parametric statistics were applied to compare the differences between groups and a classification tree analysis was performed for the dependent variables. The former elite athlete’s unemployment rate was better than the general population. At the gender comparison, a wage gap appeared between women and men. At the comparison between Olympic and non-Olympic athletes, the link to first employment differed in both groups. In the prediction models, finishing higher education arose as a key factor of the working status and the monthly salary. Among those without higher education studies, planning arose as a factor determining their salary, while among those with high qualifications, gender was the key factor. This study supports the importance of a holistic view of athletic career development and it offers practical insights into the process of reaching first employment after retirement.

ObjectiveTo summarise the literature on the barriers to athletes seeking mental health treatment and cultural influencers of mental health in elite athletes.DesignSystematic reviewData sourcesPubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, SportDiscus (Ebsco), and PsycINFO (ProQuest) up to November 2018.Eligibility criteria for selecting studiesQualitative and quantitative original studies of elite athletes (those who competed at the professional, Olympic, or collegiate/university levels), published in any language.ResultsStigma, low mental health literacy, negative past experiences with mental health treatment-seeking, busy schedules, and hypermasculinity are barriers to elite athletes seeking mental health treatment. Cultural influencers of mental health in elite athletes include: (1) the lack of acceptance of women as athletes; (2) lower acceptability of mental health symptoms and disorders among non-white athletes; (3) non-disclosure of religious beliefs; and (4) higher dependence on economic benefits. Coaches have an important role in supporting elite athletes in obtaining treatment for mental illness. Brief anti-stigma interventions in elite athletes decrease stigma and improve literary about mental health.ConclusionThere is a need for various actors to provide more effective strategies to overcome the stigma that surrounds mental illness, increase mental health literacy in the athlete/coach community, and address athlete-specific barriers to seeking treatment for mental illness. In this systematic review, we identified strategies that, if implemented, can overcome the cultural factors that may otherwise limit athletes seeking treatment. Coaches are critical for promoting a culture within elite athletes’ environments that encourages athletes to seek treatment.

Emerging evidence indicates that testosterone, which can increase muscle mass and strength, stimulates erythropoiesis, promotes competitive behaviour, and enhances the physical performance of women. Indeed, the levels of testosterone within the normal female range are related to muscle mass and athletic performance in female athletes. Furthermore, among these athletes, the prevalence of hyperandrogenic conditions, including both polycystic ovary syndrome and rare differences/disorders of sex development (DSD), which may greatly increase testosterone production, are elevated. Thus, if the androgen receptors of an individual with XY DSD are functional, her muscle mass will develop like that of a man. These findings have led to the proposal that essential hyperandrogenism is beneficial for athletic performance and plays a role in the choice by women to compete in athletic activities. Moreover, a recent randomized controlled trial demonstrated a significant increase in the lean mass and aerobic performance by young exercising women when their testosterone levels were enhanced moderately. Circulating testosterone is considered the strongest factor to explain the male advantage in sport performance, ranging between 10 and 20%. It appears to be unfair to allow female athletes with endogenous testosterone levels in the male range (i.e. 10–20 times higher than normal) to compete against those with normal female androgen levels. In 2012, this consideration led international organizations to establish eligibility regulations for the female classification in order to ensure fair and meaningful competition, but the regulations are controversial and have been challenged in court.

Some have claimed that the similarities between athletes with eating problems and women with eating disorders (ED) include only symptoms such as dieting and fear of weight gain, and do not extend to the psychopathological characteristics associated with these disorders. However, studies used to support this viewpoint have relied on comparisons between “eating-disturbed” athletes and clinically diagnosed ED patients, a method that confounds diagnostic classification with athlete status. The present study held ED classification constant by comparing ED patients who had been involved in high-level competitive athletics with nonathlete ED. No significant differences were found between the groups on any measures of psychopathology or eating-related symptoms; this suggests that if an athlete develops an eating disorder, her psychological profile is no different from others with this disorder.

Self-compassion and mental toughness may be critical for women athletes coping with sport-related adversity. However, their relationship is not well understood. While self-compassion entails being kind, accepting and understanding towards the self, mental toughness can encourage self-judgement and harsh self-criticism. The objective of this study was to explore how elite level women athletes perceived and experienced mental toughness and self-compassion and their compatibility in the pursuit of athletic success and stress management. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants (14 interviews). Interviews were transcribed and an abductive thematic analysis was performed. Four overarching themes were identified. First, the role of adversity in athletic success. Participants acknowledged adversity as critical to their growth and development as athletes. Second, mental toughness is critical for coping in sport. Participants experienced mental toughness through perseverance, presence, perspective and preparation, and perceived mental toughness as critical to stress management and athletic success. Third, self-compassion is critical for coping in sport. Although participants were previously uneducated about self-compassion, they reported using self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness and acknowledged self-compassion as critical for coping in sport. Fourth, self-compassion and mental toughness are compatible. Participants acknowledged the joint contributions of being both self-critical and self-kind; neither being more important than the other, rather, an effective balance depended on the timing, the situation and the meaning it held for each individual athlete. Findings also suggest that self-compassion is key in building mental toughness. Without self-compassion, participants reported that they would not be able to move forward after facing adversity or shift into a mentally tough mindset. Finally, findings suggest that mindfulness is a key component of both self-compassion and mental toughness, and may be the link between the compatible use of self-compassion and mental toughness. Participants reported that their ability to remain present, objective, non-attached and non-judgemental in the face of sport-related adversity was critical for the utility of both self-compassion and mental toughness. Overall, the current research demonstrates that self-compassion and mindfulness are worthy of investigating in elite women athletes, particularly with regards to their utility in coping with sport-related adversity and achieving a mentally tough mindset.
Education, Faculty of
Kinesiology, School of
Graduate

The problem addressed in this study is whether physiologic, hematologic, and performance parameters obtained during and after a long term program of anaerobic and aerobic exercise can be used as markers of chronic fatigue.

The assessment of strength and power and the relationship of these measures to functional variables such as speed and vertical jump ability are understood poorly. This is particularly the case when dealing with a long-term preparation for a major event in a sport such as women's soccer. The results of this research suggest that a number of isoinertial speed strength measures may be sensitive to aspects of a training program and therefore be useful tools for determining the level of development of various underlying neuromuscular capacities. Further results provide a question mark about the role of maximum strength in the development of high velocity functional movements, as increases in maximum strength did not correlate to changes in measures of functional performance. An important finding from this research is the potential role of specific isoinertial speed strength parameters in the detection of neuromuscular fatigue. Time course analysis of the results in this study suggests that the use of these measures to detect fatigue warrants further investigation.

[Truncated abstract] Broadly, research literature on the physiological aspects of water polo game play is limited, but particularly so in the women's game. Moreover, significant changes to game rules in recent years are likely to have had an impact on the game demands. Therefore, this research project sought to investigate the physiological characteristics of contemporary elite female water polo players and the demands of match play. Overall, the five studies comprising this thesis aimed to improve the practical knowledge of coaches and sport scientists concerning the training and monitoring of players. Study one (Chapter 3) compared two water polo-specific field tests of aerobic and/or match fitness (MSST, multistage shuttle swim test; and WIST, water polo intermittent shuttle test) with a traditional incremental swimming test to exhaustion (IST, 5 x 200 m). Prior to this study, the physiological responses to the MSST and WIST were not well understood. Additionally, the degree of association between these two tests was unknown. Therefore, 14 Australian National Women's Water Polo Squad players performed the MSST and WIST, and 13 players from a National Water Polo League club performed the MSST, WIST and IST, on separate occasions. Peak heart rate, blood lactate and ratings of perceived exertion were obtained for all tests. Expired air was collected post test for the National League players. The results showed that the National Squad players performed significantly better in the MSST (636 ± 114 vs. 437 ± 118 m, p < 0.001) and WIST (270 ± 117 vs. 115 ± 57 m, p < 0.001) than the National League players. ... Absolute decrement yielded TE of 0.55 s (-0.42-0.81), CV of 26.0% (19.3-41.0) and ICC of -0.002 (-0.44-0.44). Relative (%) decrement yielded TE of 1.6% (1.2-2.3), CV of 27.2% (20.1-42.9) and ICC of -0.02 (-0.46-0.42). Results indicate that total time was a reliable measure, whilst decrement was not. Similar to land-based RSA tests, total time should be the criterion measure of performance in the RST. The RST can form part of a specific battery of field tests for water polo, and can also be used as a conditioning tool. The final study (Chapter 7) was a nutritional-intervention study. Based on the time-motion data from study three, a 59-min match simulation test (MST) was designed to mimic the activity profiles and physical demands of water polo match play. Using a randomized cross-over double-blind design, 12 Australian National Women's Water Polo Squad players ingested 0.3 g·kg-1 of NaHCO3 or placebo, 90 min before performing the MST, which included 56 x 10-m maximal-sprint swims as the performance measure. Although pre-exercise ingestion of NaHCO3 was effective in enhancing extracellular pH and bicarbonate levels, the percentage difference in mean sprint times between trials showed no substantial effects of NaHCO3 (0.4; ±0.9%, effect size = 0.09; ±0.23, p = 0.51). The results suggest that elite water polo players should not expect enhancement in intermittent-sprint performance from NaHCO3 supplementation. These findings are contrary to previous NaHCO3 studies on simulated team-sport performance, but this investigation is unique in that it examined highly-trained athletes performing sport-specific tasks. In conclusion, the findings of this thesis add to the existing literature on the applied physiology of women's water polo. It is hoped that the knowledge gained from these findings will lead to more appropriate conditioning, testing and selection outcomes.

The New Orleans Athletic Club, founded in 1872, is one of the oldest athletic clubs in the United States that still operates today. After the boom of the 1920s and increased revenues, the club was forced to confront the Great Depression and shift its emphasis on the "strenuous life" to the "social life" to survive. The club had capitalized on the popularity of boxing during the 1920s and just finished constructing a lavish new club house when the stock market crashed in 1929. With members losing their jobs, the popularity of boxing waning, and the club in dire financial straits, the club looked for alternative strategies to survive. Its "social life" strategy relied on the club's various political ties to cut expenses and increased incentives for membership, which led to a larger, albeit, limited presence of women at the club.

Normalised constructions of masculinity and femininity within a heteronormative social structure have shaped beliefs about women's capacities, characteristics and bodies, and have constructed a hegemonic feminine ideal that has historically excluded the possibility of being simultaneously feminine and athletic. However, following developments in Europe and North America (such as Title IV and WIS) and the increased production and consumption of globalised sports, new and more athletic feminine ideals have emerged and opened spaces for women to form sporting and athletic subjectivities. As a part of this process, women's football, across the world, has grown exponentially, in popular support and participation rates, since the first World Cup was organised in China in 1991 (Hong, 2004; Cox and Thompson, 2000). In South Africa, the development of structures for women's football was late, and women's football is not yet fully professional. In South Africa football is viewed as a game for men, and it remains a flagship masculine sport that serves to maintain and support masculine domination (Pelak, 2005). Because women's participation in a sport like football is considered a transgression, there is a heightened need to mark women's bodies as feminine, so as to reinforce the heteronormative and dichotomous constructions of male/female and masculine/feminine. This thesis presents an exploration of the ambivalent relationship between empowerment and surveillance as it presents itself in the lives of elite level women footballers in South Africa. It discusses empowerment and surveillance as they appear at the most intimate levels of women's sporting experience, and impact on the ways in which women footballers discipline and regulate their bodies within the expectations of heteronormativity, femininity and athleticism. The discussion is based on qualitative, informal interviews with 18 elite level women footballers in South Africa, 12 of which are currently members of the 5 senior women's national football team, Banyana Banyana. The remaining 6 participants are members of one of Cape Town's oldest and most successful women's football teams. The interviews took place at a national team camp in Pretoria in October 2008, and in Cape Town between August and November 2008. Utilising discourse analysis and postmodern feminist standpoint theory this thesis concludes that the empowerment and transformation sport has the potential to offer women should not be assumed to follow directly from participation. Women's access to sports participation and sporting subjectivities is stratified, and a complex and ambivalent relationship exists between empowerment and surveillance. This tense relationship between is particularly evident in analyses of gender/race/class intersections, heteronormativity and through examining women's participation at a professional level. Although the neo-liberal feminine athletic validates sporting subjectivities and offers women in elite-level South African football an arena for physical expression and freedom, this empowerment is deeply embedded within the regulatory schemes produced through constructions of a heteronormative feminine aesthetic.

碩士
國立體育大學
運動技術研究所
97
Purpose of Research: Using the many-facet Rasch Measurement to analyze the skills of elite women athletes in the singles of Table Tennis. Subjects of Research: Our nation’s Top 4 Table Tennis women players ware Huang, Lu, Zeng and Lee. They played 13 important matches in the 2009 National Player Ranking Tournament. Method of Research: To analyze the three stages of skill by using video taping. The study design was divided into the master team, guest team, rater and three stages skill and etc. as the four facets. The many-facet Rasch Measurement model was : The estimation was done by using the Facets program. Results: 1. After the rater adjusted 5 players to 3 players, it showed good consistency and representativeness. 2. The entire players’ facet had good reliability, validity and representativeness. 3. Zeng had better capability on the services part and receiving part while Yi-Hau Huang had better capability on the rally part. Conclusion: The Rasch measurement is suitable for analyzing the three stages skills of women singles in the Table Tennis.

Chapter 6 brings the history of modern sport and the modern school together. In the Uppingham School Archives there’s a photograph of the school cricket team gathered round its ambitious and reforming headmaster Rev. Edward Thring. At this moment (1858) Thring was involved in painful disputes with these boys, trivial struggles that confirmed in his mind if not theirs the need to build a network of powerful schools committed to reforming the character of elite young men. He and his brother headmasters spent their lives reinventing these so called ‘public’ schools as new moral worlds. Chapter 6 looks also at the Girls Public Day School Company (1872) and its work towards the proper education of middle-class young women. Sport and gender was vital to both campaigns although how vital rather depended on the extent to which girls won a new independent voice and the boys retained their old one. Public schools were seen by their inventors as new moral worlds but they could be new immoral worlds as well. Or, to put it another way, the schools were reconfigured as closed institutions deliberately designed to influence the character and behaviour of the young. By the beginning of the twentieth century the leading public schools were seen as uniquely successful enterprises, obsessed with the athletic body, significant and forceful in the definition of what a ‘school’ should be, stately and beautiful, and surrounded almost by definition by playing fields. A new set of national icons had been created.

Abstract Human’s motion and its mechanisms had become interesting in the last years, where the medecine’s field search for rehabilitation methods for handicapped persons. Other fields, like sport sciences, professional or military world, search to distinguish profiles and ways to train them with specific purposes. Besides, recent findings in neuroscience try to describe these mechanisms from an organic point of view. Until now, different researchs had given a model about control motor that describes how the union between the senses’s information allows adaptable movements. One of this sense is the proprioception, the sense which has a quite big factor in the orientation and position of the body, its members and joints. For this reason, research for new strategies to explore proprioception and improve the theories of human motion could be done by three different vias. At first, the sense is analysed in a case-study where three groups of persons are compared in a controlled enviroment with three experimental tasks. The subjects belong to each group by the kind of sport they do: sedentary, normal sportsmen (e.g. athletics, swimming) and martial sportmen (e.g. karate, judo). They are compared thinking about the following hypothesis: “Martial Sportmen have a better proprioception than of the other groups’s subjects: It could be due to the type of exercises they do in their sports as empirically, a contact sportsman shows significantly superior motor skills to the members of the other two groups. The second via are records from encephalogram (EEG) while the experimental tasks are doing. These records are analised a posteriori with a set of processing algorithms to extract characteristics about brain’s activity of the proprioception and motion control. 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