Kiwi women are trail blazers. From being the first in the world to gain the female vote, to Jean Batten setting aviation records, to Iriaka Ratana becoming the first Māori woman elected to parliament, our women have a history of changing the world.

And in sport, they’re not only playing more than ever before, they’re breaking records and achieving at the highest levels.

But what if we’ve been missing an opportunity to help them reach even higher peaks? Researchers recognise this as an area of huge untapped potential.

Sport science is dominated by male-based research

Traditionally, sport science has used male subjects for research and generalised the results to females.

This approach is what most training programmes for every sport are based on. It’s a playbook designed to serve the needs of the male body.

We’re recognising now that the female anatomy and physiology is different from that of males in a way that needs to be addressed in training practices to avoid putting them at higher risk of injury.

There are physiological differences

Women are not small men. That’s the view of Dr Stacy Sims, an environmental exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist specialising in sex differences.

"If we look at what’s happening during the onset of puberty – you have the widening of the hip angle and you have the widening of the carrying angle [shoulder] to accommodate for the wider hips.

“You have a change in your centre of gravity, you have increased body fat accumulation primarily driven by hormones.

“And then to top it all off, you start bleeding.

“Then you look at boys – they get tall, they get strong, they get lean, they get fast and they get aggressive. The misstep I think during that time period where girls are really sensitive is we don’t tell them it’s a temporary blip in time, and we also don’t re-teach them critical skills to not get injured."

Sims adds: "Because most training plans are designed for boys and men, it’s no wonder that so many females struggle to reach their full sporting potential."

Dr Bruce Hamilton, director of Performance Health at High Performance Sport New Zealand and founder of WHISPA (Women’s Health in Sport a Performance Advantage), agrees with Sims.

"There’s no question that women are underrepresented in sport and exercise science research. We now know that a woman’s physiology is very distinct to men’s and it affects all of their organ systems.

"So, why would we try and train women like men and why would we expect that research done on men can translate directly to women?"