Though girls’s participation in ultrarunning is on the rise, there’s nonetheless surprisingly little recognized about many female-specific physiological challenges confronted by ultra-endurance athletes. The lately launched Ladies’s Well being Programme goals to vary that by bringing a data- and science-driven change to the best way females method the game.
Camille Bruyas, who was second on the 2025 UTMB, is among the elite runners concerned within the Ladies’s Well being Programme. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
By convening a discipline of medical specialists, researchers, {and professional} athletes, this system — created by Extremely Sport Science and supported by UTMB — will acquire knowledge at prime worldwide races to raised perceive feminine our bodies, with the objective of bettering the security, well-being, and long-term participation of feminine athletes in ultrarunning.
The necessity for extra knowledge and analysis is clear. In response to knowledge from the Worldwide Path Runners Affiliation (ITRA), feminine participation in path working has elevated from 16% in 2007 to 30.5% in 2025. Nevertheless, few research look at the precise physiological and psychological components regarding feminine efficiency. As Dr. Stacy Simsan athlete, train physiologist, and diet scientist, typically says, “Ladies usually are not small males,” and extra analysis is required to know the variations. The Ladies’s Well being Programme goals to make use of scientific research, questionnaires, and athlete suggestions to raised perceive how feminine athletes function throughout endurance occasions. Key analysis areas will embody menstrual well being, being pregnant and post-partum, hormonal well being, and hydration and intestine points.
Blandine L’Hirondel, ending third on the 2023 UTMB, is certainly one of a number of elite athletes concerned with the Ladies’s Well being Programme. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Extremely Sports activities Science, the group behind the challenge, is a non-profit devoted to bettering the well being and security of endurance athletes. Dr. Sandrine Nail-Billaudan ultrarunner and lead researcher at Extremely Sports activities Science, helps to coordinate the challenge. She explains that “the information will finally be used as a stepping stone for offering clear recommendation to the general public. We would like our knowledge to be accessible to all athletes, no matter their degree, in order that they’ll apply these rules to their coaching and competitors.”
There are a number of elite athletes related to the challenge, together with French runners Marion Delespierre, Blandine L’Hirondeland Camille Bruyas. Delespierre, who can also be a sports activities doctor, may even be contributing to the programme. “These are points that I work with every day in my clinic,” she says, “so in fact they’re necessary to me on each an expert degree and as an athlete. Gaining access to extra female-specific research will make approach for higher therapies and help sooner or later.”
Marion Delespierre, who’s a sports activities doctor along with an expert runner, believes the Ladies’s Well being Programme will produce priceless knowledge. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
The primary yr of the Ladies’s Well being Programme will use the 2026 UTMB as an “open-air laboratory … enabling entry to a extremely various and consultant pool of athletes whereas permitting large-scale knowledge assortment and cross-cultural evaluation.” In response to Nail-Billaud, this system will host a congress throughout the UTMB competition with periods open to each the general public and analysis specialists, throughout which specialists will current the outcomes of ongoing research on psychological well being, gynecological points, and digestive issues, together with video testimonials from athletes concerned in this system.
