Distance runner Eilish McColgan has hailed upcoming research developments for female athletes after this morning joining performance nutrition brand Science in Sport. 

The reigning 10,000m Commonwealth Games champion, from Scotland, has become a member of Science in Sport’s Elite Performance Advisory Panel, citing the need to tackle the research gap between men’s and women’s sport. 

She will help provide “athlete insight to inform future performance research and education initiatives”, according to a statement.

McColgan said: “The performances, the visibility, the investment – it’s all moving in the right direction. But the science hasn’t kept pace.

“We have research coming that I genuinely believe could be as transformative for female runners as the super shoe revolution was for distance running.”

The move for the Brit comes after Adidas super shoes saw both the men’s and women’s marathon world records broken in London earlier this year, with the former seeing Sabastian Sawe clocking the world’s first legal sub-two hour time.

Around five per cent of sports science is focused exclusively on women’s sport and female athletes, which comes ahead of a Science in Sport report due later this year on recommendations for refuelling female endurance athletes.

McColgan to help shape the future?

Science in Sport “is bringing together a network of world-class athletes to provide real-world perspectives on the challenges facing elite performers,” the nutrition brand stated, “working alongside Science in Sport’s Science Advisory Panel to help identify areas where further research and innovation could have the greatest impact.”

McColgan added that women’s sport had outpaced its own science.

“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,” McColgan, who is set to try and defend her Commonwealth title on home soil this summer, concluded. 

“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, Science in Sport’s Chief Science Officer, 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.”