Dr Emma Ross

A science communicator at heart, I spent the first part of my career teaching physiology to sports science, physiotherapy and medical students.

In 2013 I joined the English Institute of Sport as Head of Physiology to lead the sports scientists supporting our Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

After Rio 2016, Great Britain was described as a ‘sporting superpower’. We won more medals than ever and finished second in the table. It was exceptional, but how could we continue to improve?

I realised the answer wasn’t in marginal gains but by tapping into something more fundamental: the female part of the female athlete.

And with that, I developed and led ground-breaking new programmes to ensure coaches, athletes and sports practitioners could better understand exercising females, their physiology and psychology.

I’m still on that mission. I want to tackle the taboos that exist within sport, and within wider society, when it comes to women’s health; topics such as periods and the menstrual cycle, breast health, pelvic floor health and mental health.

Sport and exercise have always been part of my life. I never had a great deal of natural sporting talent, but I always got an A for effort and it turns out that’s an important component of success! I was even part of the winning team in the British Universities final on the hallowed turf at Twickenham.

After my rugby career at University, I caught the running bug. I ran my first marathon in her memory of my sister, who died in 2005, to raise much-needed funds for her rare neurodegenerative disease charity. I went from marathons to ultra-endurance races and triathlons.

In 2008, I completed my debut Ironman in New Zealand. I chose that race as I was in the country working on a project with The University of Otago, preparing for a research trip to Everest. We spent days trekking through the Himalayas, yaks laden with our research equipment to study the effects of high altitude on the brain and body.

Marathons, Ironmans, triathlons – enduring pain was my MO. When I got pregnant, I figured labour would be a breeze. Unfortunately, when it comes to pregnancy, labour, recovery and parenting nobody gets to ride for free, and achievement in sports or jobs don’t mean a thing to babies. For a year I had post-natal depression that went undiagnosed and unacknowledged.

Later, my menstrual cycle symptoms became debilitating, and I was sent to a tropical medicine clinic before my GP even checked out the basics.

My personal experience – as much as my professional – has put a fire in my belly to ensure that, in future, women are fully educated in what to expect from mind and body through these complex life-stages.

In sport and in society in general, this requires more openness and frankness than I was ever exposed to. There’s work to do.

I’ve come to realise that our country’s most successful athletes don’t have sufficient body literacy. They don’t fully understand how female-specific factors affect performance. If elite athletes don’t have this knowledge there’s something fundamentally wrong.

Girls and women everywhere desperately need a greater understanding of what’s going on in their body. Once we conquer awareness, I know we can empower females to pursue high performance, whether it’s in sport and exercise, or work and family.

Myself, Baz and Bella are absolutely committed to righting this wrong; to handing females the knowledge and understanding they need to be architects of their own health. Change now means we can ensure parents, partners and professionals can do more and better when supporting women in future.