Gendered environmental pathways to sports injury: insights from retired athletes in the UK high-performance context

Abstract

Objective Women remain at increased risk for some sports injuries, such as anterior cruciate ligament rupture and concussion. This study applied a gendered environmental approach to identify modifiable features of women’s sport environments that may contribute to the gendered patterning of sports injuries. Our objectives were to identify features of gendered environments that mattered in athletes’ lived experiences and to trace pathways connecting these features to injury. Methods We employed a creative methodology combining semi-structured interviews with artefact-elicited storytelling and poetic transcription to actively centre women athletes’ voices and communicate their experiences in formats intended to stimulate reflection among sport system stakeholders. Results Drawing on insights from 20 recently retired women athletes across 11 UK high-performance sports, our reflexive thematic analysis identified five gendered environmental challenges shaping women’s injury experiences, risk and outcomes: (1) stereotypes trivialise injury, (2) physiology is all or nothing, (3) the ‘ideal’ female athlete, (4) in/visible inequities and (5) uneven power dynamics. Within these gendered environmental challenges, we identified mechanisms through which challenges manifest in the everyday experiences of athletes, highlighting these as potential points to disrupt the gendered environments-to-injury pathway. Conclusion Our findings provide an evidence-based framework for categorising and addressing gendered environmental challenges in women’s sport. Interventions to reconfigure the gendered status quo within sport should be embedded as part of injury prevention strategies. No data are available. Due to ethical considerations, datasets from this project are not publicly available.