As more women and girls play sports, there has been a corresponding increase in injuries that can lead to cessation of sports participation.
That's the finding of 109 researchers, including three from the University of Calgary, who made 56 injury prevention recommendations specific to women and girls.
“Globally, participation rates in sports among female and female athletes are rising exponentially, as are injury and concussion rates,” said Carolyn Emery, who co-led the group funded by the International Olympic Committee.
“Historically, prevention efforts have been concentrated among men and elite athletes, so there's just been a huge gap.”
Women's sport in Canada is growing rapidly with the recent creation of the Women's Professional Hockey League and the Northern Soccer Super League, as well as Canadian women reaching the finals of the Rugby World Cup. The WNBA is coming to Canada next year with the Toronto Tempo.
“Those who play at such a high level survive,” Emery said. “They managed to survive their sports careers at a younger age. We know the number one factor in attrition is injury. We want to have solutions that will actually prevent these types of injuries from happening.”
Registration of women's hockey players in Canada increased year over year to 114,000 in 2024–25. Hockey Canada's goal is 170,000 by 2030.
But Hockey Canada's steering committee said in a discussion paper last year that “limited and inconsistent injury prevention education designed specifically for girls playing hockey has resulted in fewer girls continuing to play hockey and sports in general.”
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It's time to step up “research and prevention strategies”
The consensus document's recommendations range from the need for equitable funding and resources when it comes to injury surveillance and trained medical personnel, to creating safe spaces free of body shaming or promotion of ideal body types, to mandatory neuromuscular warm-ups to prevent first and recurrent injuries.
“For years, women have been underrepresented [in sports] and are underrepresented in sports science research,” said Calgary researcher Emily Heming. “We know there are differences in how injuries occur, how they are managed, and the support available to these women and girls athletes.
“We are seeing girls and women increasingly involved in sports. Now is the time to develop research and prevention strategies to meet these needs.”
In 2025, Rugby Canada had 16,528 registered female players.
A rally report released by Canadian Women and Sport in 2024 found that girls' dropout rates increase at age 16 and increase in their late teens, with more than one-fifth dropping out of sports.
“Injuries are the reason why girls quit sports,” said CWS CEO Allison Sandmeyer-Graves.
“While we could say that this may also be true for boys, when you combine this with the fact that there has been so little research done on injury prevention among girls and women in sport, it speaks to the conscious and unconscious bias that still exists in the field and the opportunity to make truly positive progress.”
Physical differences between men and women aside, women and girls often operate in different athletic environments than men and boys, says Carly McKay, who also co-authored the consensus document and is an assistant professor at the university's Cumming School of Medicine.
“We know that in many cases women's teams are not as well resourced, they do not have access to the same funding, the same training opportunities, the same experience or even development opportunities that men's teams typically have,” she explained.
“So not only can we not simply take data from men and boys and assume that it applies to girls and women, because it doesn’t, but the context in which we are trying to apply this data is not the same either.
Almost 270,000 women and girls play soccer in Canada
“We can hypothesize that following a strength training program will reduce the risk of lower extremity injuries. That's all well and good, but if our female athletes don't have the same access to exercise equipment or safe access to gyms, recommending strength training won't help them.”
In Canada, almost 270,000 women and girls play soccer.
Research has linked ACL tears in female athletes to the menstrual cycle. Football's world governing body, FIFA, funded a study from Kingston University in England to investigate whether menstrual cycles contribute to more catastrophic knee injuries in women's football.
WATCH | The connection between menstruation and injury:
CBC Sports explores how hormonal changes can lead to potentially career-altering injuries.
“We've known for a very long time that female athletes are at several times the risk of ACL injury, depending on what sport you're talking about, than their male counterparts,” Emery said.
“We know that a significant proportion of women who have had an anterior cruciate ligament injury or even a meniscal injury, any type of internal joint injury, are at higher risk for post-traumatic osteoarthritis.”
Research has also shown that female athletes are more likely to suffer concussions or have a higher risk of concussions than men who participate in collision sports.
“Youth rugby has the same rules, the same tackling techniques and we know that concussion rates are significantly higher in girls,” Emery said. “Do we understand all the risk factors? Probably not, but we understand there are solutions.
“Thus, thinking about prevention strategies related to grip training, neuromuscular training during warm-ups, and perhaps changing grip heights in games may all work together to reduce the incidence of concussions.”
