\u201cAs Gaelic games are played on an amateur basis across all levels, resources and funding for such supports are limited for many clubs and teams,\u201d the paper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnecdotally, we understand that fewer of these resources are available to female GAA athletes compared with their male counterparts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Gaelic Players Association\u2019s<\/a> head of equality and player relations, Gemma Begley, said the GPA was familiar with these challenges. <\/p>\n The GPA reports Levelling the Field, from 2020, which tracked individual experiences, and State of Play, from 2023, which called for \u201cfemale specific supports\u201d to be prioritised, led to the commissioning of a PhD research project, Supporting Female Athlete Health and Performance in Elite Gaelic Games, by Sarah Doran to \u201cbuild understanding of current experiences, improve education and enhance supports on the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n Begley said these initiatives contributed to the drawing up of a charter two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cThe charter introduced for female intercounty players in 2024 is a crucial step forward. This recognises there are required minimum standards to support the health and training load of our elite level players,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is plenty of scope for further improvements in the level and consistency of provisions across the various elements of the charter which we\u2019ll continue to advocate for in the coming years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is designed to guarantee supports such as access to nutritionists and doctors, provision of timely nutrition after training and games, [strength and conditioning] support to manage physical load and recovery, physiotherapy services for prehab, rehab, load management and sports psychologist access, which can often be an essential element to addressing the root cause of the issues around disordered eating and overtraining.\u201d<\/p>\n She also said the nature of psychological support meant it was better conveyed on an individual basis rather than generic communication.<\/p>\n Whereas such assistance can be helpful and is widely available, \u201caccess to consistent, timely and trusted sources of info (preferably an accredited sport scientist) should be the most appropriate intervention available\u201d.<\/p>\n Begley also noted that a key difference between female athletes and their male counterparts was the much younger age at which the former became senior players.<\/p>\n She said the PhD research would be a vital resource.<\/p>\n \u201cSarah\u2019s study when completed will help inform the next steps for the GPA in developing enhanced supports for female intercounty players in this area,\u201d Begley said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hope is to build an educational module or programme that focuses first on enhancing health literacy while also working with backroom teams around this. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the WSL [Women\u2019s Super League soccer] in the UK, someone on the backroom team must have a qualification in the female athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Technological University of the Shannon<\/a> and Dublin City University<\/a> run \u201cfemale athlete specific education modules that are currently available for coaches\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recently issued paper in the Irish Journal of Medical Science has drawn attention to risks facing female…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":176542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[100219,100221,100217,210,25205,100216,1182,100220,67,132,68,100218],"class_list":{"0":"post-176541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-camogie","9":"tag-dublin-city-university","10":"tag-gaelic-players-association-gpa","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-international-olympic-committee","13":"tag-ladies-gaelic-football-association-lgfa","14":"tag-nutrition","15":"tag-technological-university-of-the-shannon","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-women-in-sport"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115094126773142758","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Gemma](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/7GQQ4GJXYA7QUHSNXQ6B3YVDQM.jpg\")
Gemma Begley of the GPA says the research will help the association to develop enhanced supports for female intercounty players. Photograph: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile <\/p>\n