Recommendations Developed for Injury Prevention in Female Athletes

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- In a consensus issued by the International Olympic Committee and published online Dec. 2 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, recommendations are presented to guide injury prevention for female/women/girl athletes.Kay M. Crossley, Ph.D., from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues followed an eight-step hybrid method to develop recommendations to guide injury prevention for female/women/girl athletes at the Female/woman/girl Athlete Injury pRevention (FAIR) International Olympic Committee Consensus meeting. Recommendations were developed based on syntheses of best available evidence combined with lived experiences of athletes and others involved in regulation, policy, practice, professional, and personal support.Fifty-six FAIR recommendations addressed primary injury prevention, secondary injury prevention, modifiable risk factors, approaches to dissemination and implementation, and promoting gender/sex-supportive environments (16, four, 12, 14, and 10, respectively). The recommendations include creating safe spaces free from body shaming or promoting ideal body types or gendered norms, which are not always part of female/women/athletes' reality, but should be nonnegotiable, the authors state. Other recommendations include creating and enforcing gender-based policies and procedures to address interpersonal violence and harassment, and fostering a culture allowing discussion and accommodation of issues such as pregnancy, bone health, and breast care. Other key recommendations include mandatory neuromuscular training warm-ups for all sports and all ages, implementation and enforcement of policies penalizing unlawful head/body contact, and mandatory injury management to prevent concussion."To bolster female/woman/girl athlete health and safety, every person (at all levels of sport participation and in their own specific context) can, and should, take responsibility to carefully consider and action these recommendations," the authors write.Several authors disclosed ties to the sports industry.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter