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Project Women in Canoe Sport
Canoeing has evolved from a mode of transport, into recreation, all the way to having several different varieties of elite sports discipline. Due to social and economic factors, it has often been dominated both in the athlete and coaching sectors by men. This means that in many instances, data gathering, training and equipment, are predisposed towards human beings with a specific set of physical and hormonal attributes. For women, this often means training frequency, intensity and length are determined by a male average, which can lead to effects of over-training and associated issues.
Introduction of the Women in Canoe Sport project
The Women in Canoe Sport project aims to support girls and women in canoeing, especially in canoe slalom. This initiative is supported by a grant from the European Union.
Canoeing has always been a predominantly male sport. This is not exceptional, as the entire phenomenon of the sport has historically and socio-economically been a male domain. And it can be stated that it still is. Even in the science of sport training, most of the research is devoted to the male population. Textbooks on sports training usually addresses primarily men in their predominant scope, while women are usually given a short supplementary chapter. This means that the volume, intensity, frequency and focus of training sessions are often determined by the male average. In practice, this can lead to localised musculoskeletal overload, physical exhaustion and even overtraining of female athletes.
