A team of seven HPSNZ women — Women in High Performance Sport lead Helene Wilson, Healthy Women in Performance Sport lead Dr Sue Robson, Athlete Performance Support lead Dr Helen Fulcher, Head of Performance Pathways Tracey Paterson, Performance Pathways System Lead Jenna Knight, Performance Health Nurse Jane Probert, and Performance Physiotherapist Jennifer Scott — attended the three day conference hosted by the Australian Institute of Sport.
The HPSNZers were joined by more than 20 other women from New Zealand NSOs and tertiary institutions, along with colleagues from around the globe.
The conference brought together academics and high performance specialists which helped encourage the understanding of each other’s women in sport worlds and provided diverse information and unique perspectives, all in the same room, says Helene.
“What was special about the conference was the bringing together of science, medicine, case studies, and coaching practice all at the same conference,” says Helene. “It was extremely well integrated with a great opportunity to be in the same room with experts you may not normally meet.”
“There were some fantastic presenters and two in particular stood out for me. Sophia Nimphius who presented on “The Celebrity Ligament”, offering up that it is time to rethink the female physiology of athletes which may have been impacted by society adopting a gendered approach to training from a very young age.
“Deakin University lecturer, Helen Brown’s presentation on Behaviour Change in Sport, specifically in coaching and inclusive practices, resonated strongly on the subject of research and building resources within high performance but, importantly, how it is used in practice.”
Helene says the women’s specific conference, which alternates annually between the US and Australia, is a powerful and important platform for better understanding female athlete health and performance support. “What I’d love to see going forward is more men who work with female athletes attend conferences like this.”
As one of the presenters at the conference, Helene was one of two New Zealanders to receive awards for their oral presentation. Her recognition for Research Linked to Coaching Practice was based on a case study of HPSNZ’s Women in High Performance Sport Residency Experience. The other New Zealand award recipient on nutrition & recovery was Penelope Matkin-Hussey, an Otago University PhD candidate whose topic was recovering from RED-S and improving the energy availability amongst females diagnosed with RED-S.
