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The increasing trend of females participating in elite and historically male-dominated sports has also resulted in a rise in females performing dynamic warm-ups (DWs). DW is a widely used practice in hockey. However, there is scarce evidence describing how DWs impact subsequent anaerobic performance and whether this response differs between sexes. This study aimed to determine sex differences in anaerobic performance when preceded by a DW. Twenty National Collegiate Athletics Association Division-II hockey players (n = 20, 10 female) completed a Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT) preceded by a DW or no warm-up in a randomized, counterbalanced order and followed a crossover design. The DW was ∼8 min long and consisted of 13 movements that targeted prime muscles and joints involved in ice skating. The WAnT consisted of a 30-s, maximal effort sprint against 7.5% of the participant’s body mass performed on a cycle ergometer. Peak power output (PPO), relative peak power (RPP), mean anaerobic power (MP), and fatigue index (FI) evaluated anaerobic performance during the WAnT. There were no significant differences between male and female scores following DW. MP was significantly higher in males and females, but PPO, RPP, and FI were not when a DW preceded the WAnT. In both conditions, males had higher PPO and MP than females, while there were no sex differences in RPP and FI. In conclusion, performing a DW before a WAnT improved MP for females and males with no adverse effects on PPO, RPP, and FI. This study suggests that DW might benefit hockey players independently of sex.

As the total distances covered in soccer games have remained relatively constant, the hard running distances (HRDs) covered by players have shown variations due to the higher physical demands and dynamics of team running performances. Although factors affecting the total distances covered in a match are multifactorial, no study has specifically examined match performance indicators (MPIs) that impact HRD. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to better understand how MPIs (hard running efforts, turnovers, minutes played, duels won, duels lost, and pass completions) are associated with HRD and to investigate how each variable contributes to HRD using multiple regression analysis. The study included a sample of 21 female Division I soccer players aged between 18 and 22 years (mean ± SD = 20 ± 1.32 years), all of whom were outfield players: center backs (n = 5), defensive midfielders (n = 4), outside midfielders (n = 5), center-attacking midfielders (n = 4), and center forwards (n = 3). Overall, all MPIs were positively associated (.639 ≤ r ≤ .992) with HRD, yet hard running efforts showed the strongest relationship with HRDs (r = .992). The regression models indicated that all variables contributed to HRD. In particular, hard running effort had the most significant impact (p < .001), implying its dominant influence on HRD compared with other variables. These findings may play a pivotal role in supporting coaches and trainers to better understand the influence of MPIs on HRD. The models developed could help predict a player’s workload related to HRD.

In the 2022 National Football League (NFL) season, Miami Dolphins’ quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, received two concussions in 5 days and was taken off the field on a stretcher. The media framing around Tagovailoa’s concussions was focused on the flaws in the NFL concussion policy and the poor decision making of the neurotrauma consultant. However, no mention of Tagovailoa’s race was mentioned despite historical racist practices regarding concussions in football for racialized athletes. Given the media’s role in the framing of concussions and the perpetuation of racial stereotypes, I conducted a content analysis to explore ESPN media articles dedicated to concussion stories during the 2022 NFL season. Ultimately, this paper concludes that through subtle but pervasive frames, the writers at ESPN continue to perpetuate racial stereotypes that construct racialized athletes as physiologically superior, intellectually inept, and criminally dangerous.

Satellite fans make up an important part of a sport team’s market, but little is known about how long-distance relationships are developed across different cultures. In this manuscript, we utilize the Consumer Culture Theory to examine how satellite fans develop fanship toward foreign professional sport teams. Drawing from 46 interviews with Chinese and American fans of European soccer teams, we developed four archetypal pathways through which fans form relationships with their beloved teams, reflected in the labels “Detached Admirer,” “Relational Networker,” “Industry Analyst,” and “Spiritual Follower.” The findings showed both cross-cultural and intracultural differences in the way satellite fans connect to their teams. In diverse ways, satellite fans construct their desired identities based on the meaning of their fandom, influenced by a variety of social-historical parameters. Accordingly, we bring theoretical innovation to sport fan behavior research and provide managerial actions for teams targeting the satellite fan base.

A year after publicly coming out as trans, Canadian soccer player Quinn became the first openly transgender athlete to win an Olympic medal when they won gold at Tokyo 2020 in the women’s tournament. They then participated in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, another first for a trans person. These accomplishments created an important media coverage that this paper sought to examine. Inspired by a queer methodology and the concept of “trans joy,” the project proposed a creative way of documenting trans stories that were either accurate and positive or less trans-inclusive. The findings were discussed in light of the existing literature on the media coverage of trans athletes, as well as that of women’s soccer. Recommendations for the media are also included.

Responsive to the recent proliferation of anti-trans sports policies and state legislation, this essay argues for a deeper collaboration across sports studies and trans studies. I offer an analysis of the 2020 Gender Inclusion Policy enacted by USA Ultimate (the North American governing body for the sport of ultimate frisbee) alongside an analysis of my embodied experiences while playing the sport. I develop a set of interrelated terms—the sporting body without organs and un/Gendered assemblages—that build upon Deleuzian and trans studies onto-epistemologies. Beyond an exploration of the gendered policies of ultimate frisbee, this essay’s broader purpose is to redirect the conversation about trans athletes and anti-trans policies away from the topic of how and why bodies become organized into categorical inclusion/exclusion, toward a focus on sporting moments and movements when gender can become a malleable element of play.

Arlington Stadium in Arlington, Texas, originally opened as a minor-league stadium in 1965, but by 1972, it became home to the Texas Rangers of baseball’s American League. Although it was an architecturally undistinguished facility, Arlington Stadium shows how civic leaders in Arlington, alongside boosters in nearby Dallas and Fort Worth, utilized organized baseball’s legal doctrine of territorial rights to unify the metro area’s baseball market within a centrally located suburb. Quickly growing Arlington thus became home to a stadium that might one day host a big-league team, although in the meantime, it could host a minor-league team. This article tells the story of Arlington Stadium’s planning and construction, as well as the Rangers’ relocation from Washington, D.C., as a way to understand how a metro area used organized baseball’s idiosyncratic rules, based on a longstanding federal antitrust exemption, to build a suburban home for a major-league team.

In this project, I examine the manner in which fans and players of American football understand the plastic safety helmet. My findings are built on a series of qualitative interviews conducted with helmet aficionados and former players. While conventional wisdom would suggest that the protective purpose is the primary function of the helmet, I demonstrate that in practice it is secondary. The foremost service of the helmet is to convey meaning through team, regional, aesthetic, and branding signifiers, which shape how individuals affiliate themselves with the game, form their fan or player identity, and consume football and football equipment. Although they do so in different ways, both groups, players and aficionados, fetishize the object; exemplifying the way in which masculinity and materiality have become intertwined in the game of football, such that the helmet functions as an abstract avatar of heteronormative manliness.

Introduction: There is a substantial amount of sporting dropout in teenage girls worldwide linked, in part, to the menstrual cycle (MC). Firstly, this study aimed to retrospectively quantify the reasons for decreased sport and, or, exercise (sports/exercise) participation during adolescence across different countries. Secondly, this study investigated the prevalence, source, and content of MC education received in relation to sports/exercise. Methods: A survey was distributed via the Strava app to six geographical territories. The survey captured retrospective reasons for changing sports/exercise participation levels during adolescence and the provision, content, and source of MC education received in relation to sports/exercise. Descriptive statistics were reported as frequencies and associations between countries, education, and adolescent participation levels were determined using chi-square analysis (p = .01). Results: Female Strava users (M = 40.8 years, SD = 10.7 years) from six territories completed the survey (n = 10,371). 24.8% of participants decreased their sports/exercise participation during adolescence with the United Kingdom and Ireland (39.7%) and Spain (39.1%) reporting significantly higher decreases than the other countries surveyed, χ²(10)=1,023.77, p ≤ .001. The most common reason for decreased participation was a lack of time (28.0%). 71.1% of participants had not received education. Of those that were educated, the most common source was “self-education” (69.8%) and content was “to keep levels of exercise the same” (29.8%). Conclusions: There is a need for education to be available and easily accessible for girls and women which provides instructions on managing the MC and other commitments alongside sports/exercise, and highlights the many benefits of participating in regular sports/exercise.