To investigate best practice Sports Science and Sports Medicine (SSSM) care of the female athlete

Recommendations: Worldwide, individuals and organisations are grappling with how to best approach female athlete care. What became clear is that a systematic approach needs to  be taken by sporting organisations in order to develop research, identify structures and resourcing required and implement world’s best practice.  The foundation of this is a peak national body leading a more professional approach to female health care in our elite athletes and providing resources to community female sport participants.  Sporting organisations, clinicians and athletes all have a role to play in instituting best practice female athlete healthcare, driving optimal outcomes and making Australia the best place in the world to be a female athlete.  I have developed a framework through which to outline recommendations for each of these stakeholder groups in the areas of Expertise and Resourcing, Research  and Collaboration, and Female Specific Injury and Illness Management These recommendations focus on a tailored approach that is underpinned by recognising that female athletes have unique needs and that these needs should  be met to a standard equal to that enjoyed by their male counterparts. You cannot be what you cannot see. Women’s sport and our female athletes are an amazing way to delivery empowering messages to girls that they can do any activities of sports that boys can. For our female athletes to thrive, we need to look after them and their health so they can continue to inspire us all.  Keywords: Female, athlete, sports, medicine, physiotherapy, health, performance