Canadian Female, Woman, and Girl Athlete Health & Safety Community of Research & Practice

The focus of this conference, held September 23-25, 2025, was the promotion of athlete health and safety in sport, with a particular focus on female, women, and girl athletes. There is a rapidly growing body of research on evidence informed impact, leadership, and training in athlete health and safety in sport nationally and internationally. However, many gaps remain within research that focuses on females, women, and girls, and this must be a priority given inequity in injury rates and health outcomes for females, women, and girls.

This important topic brought together researchers and leaders across 6 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institutes including Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis, Gender and Health, Human Development, Child and Youth Health, Population and Public Health, Indigenous Peoples' Health, and Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.

Building on the momentum of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Female, Woman, and Girl Athlete Injury pRevention (FAIR) Consensus (Lausanne March 31-April 2, 2025), we highlighted the impact Canadian research and researchers are having in this space, as well as that of international transdisciplinary research collaborators across multiple contexts from IOC Research Centres.

The FAIR Consensus co-leads are Dr. Carolyn Emery (Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre – SIPRC - Canadian IOC Research Centre) and Professor Kay Crossley (La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre – LASEM - Australian IOC Research Centre). The FAIR Consensus was informed by 5 systematic reviews and meta-analyses (injury specific), a scoping review focused on dissemination and implementation, and a concept mapping project identifying barriers and facilitators. A Delphi project to identify FAIR Research Priorities is in progress.

This summit was led by three IOC Research Centre woman leaders: Dr. Carolyn Emery is the Chair of SIPRC, and Dr. Suzanne Leclerc (Medical director at Institut national du sport du Québec) is a Chair of the Réseau Francophone Olympique de la Recherche en Médecine du sport (ReFORM) and Professor Kay Crossley is the Chair of LASEM. Together they led this 2 ½ day summit highlighting transdisciplinary research, national and international collaborations, early career researchers, and panelists (e.g., clinicians, youth, athletes, coaches, sport governing bodies).