Science in Sport (SiS) has appointed Commonwealth Games champion Eilish McColgan as a member of its newly established Elite Performance Advisory Panel. The initiative is designed to integrate athlete insights into future performance research and education, specifically targeting the historical research gap in female sports science.
The UK-based performance nutrition brand, which was founded in 1992, is assembling a network of high-level athletes to provide real-world perspectives on the challenges facing elite performers. This panel will work alongside the company’s Science Advisory Panel to identify areas where innovation and research could offer the most significant impact on athletic results.
The appointment of McColgan deepens her existing relationship as an SiS brand ambassador and comes at a time of increasing scrutiny regarding the gender imbalance in sports science. Historically, less than 5% of elite performance research has focused exclusively on female athletes.
McColgan has highlighted the risk of female runners being left behind if sports science continues to prioritise male physiology. Her warning follows a landmark period in endurance sports in general, including Sabastian Sawe becoming the first man to record a sanctioned marathon time under two hours. McColgan suggests that a deeper understanding of female physiology could be as transformative for women’s distance running as the ‘super shoe’ revolution.
Science in Sport is scheduled to publish a study later this year focusing on elite female marathon runners. The brand aims for the findings to reshape fuelling recommendations for endurance athletes. A parallel study conducted on male runners demonstrated that consuming 120g of carbohydrate per hour improved running economy by 3%, a margin that can translate into several minutes over a full marathon distance.
Eilish McColgan said “The performances, the visibility, the investment – it’s all moving in the right direction. But the science hasn’t kept pace. The challenge we face is that sports performance research is overwhelmingly based on male cohorts, which ignores important aspects of female physiology, including the impact of the menstrual cycle on performance and recovery.”
She added “I’m excited to join Science in Sport’s Elite Performance Advisory Panel and help ensure the athlete perspective is represented when identifying the questions that matter most. For me personally, this work will also play an important role in how I approach training and racing.”
Professor James Morton, Chief Science Officer at Science in Sport, said “Eilish brings invaluable experience as one of the world’s leading endurance athletes. Through the Elite Performance Advisory Panel, she’ll help us better understand the real-world challenges athletes face and highlight areas where science can have the greatest impact.”
Morton continued “Our belief is that the next frontier in endurance performance will come not simply from applying existing knowledge to female athletes, but from building a deeper understanding of female physiology in its own right.”
The panel’s findings and the subsequent research priorities will be utilised to inform the development of future nutritional products and educational platforms for both elite and amateur athletes worldwide.
