Xavier Bigard (Keynote)
Pr. Xavier Bigard is the Medical Director of the International Cycling Federation (UnionCycliste Internationale, UCI). He is a former professor of Physiology at the Val-de-Grâce (the French university of military medicine, Paris), where he also held the chair of Research. He has a long research career with a focus on exercise physiology, muscular biology, sports nutrition, physical training tolerance, and the adaptation of active humans to extreme environmental conditions (altitude, heat, cold).
Pr. Bigard was scientific advisor of the president of the French Antidoping Agency during 6 years, and currently member of the Health-Medicine-Research Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency. He was President of the French Society of Exercise and Sport Medicine, and currently member of the ASOIF (Association of Summer Olympic International Federations) Medical and Science Consultative Group, and of the World Academy of Endurance Medicine.
He is a member of the French Academy of Medicine, leader of working groups responsible for issuing recommendations in the field of physical activity for health. He has published over 200 peer reviewed journal papers and book chapters. He is Chief Editor of an international journal on sports sciences and medicine and has served as a reviewer for more than 30 journals.
He is a member of the French Academy of Medicine and heads working groups tasked with issuing recommendations on physical activity for health, for the general population and for frail individuals. He has published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. He is editor-in-chief of an international journal on sports science and medicine and has been a reviewer for more than 30 scientific journals.
Carly McKay (Keynote)
Dr Carly McKay completed her BKin (2006) and MSc in Sport Medicine (2008) at the University of Calgary (Canada), and her PhD in Kinesiology (2011) at Western University (Canada). She is currently a Reader in Injury Prevention, Director of Studies (MSc in Football Medicine in Association with FIFA), and Deputy Director of the Centre for Health, Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (Chi2PS) at the University of Bath. She is a member of the UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), which is one of 11 International Research Centres for the Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health supported by the International Olympic Committee. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. Her research focuses on the role of psychosocial and behavioural factors in sport injury risk and recovery, and using behaviour change approaches to support injury prevention strategies.
Will Adams
Dr. William Adams is currently the Associate Director of Sports Medicine Research with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee where he oversees the Sports Medicine Research Program focused on injury and illness prevention in sport. He also is the Director of the US Coalition for the Prevention of Illness and Injury in sport, which is one of eleven International Olympic Committee designated Research Centres that are located around the world. In addition to his current roles, Dr. Adams also holds appointments at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Loughborough University.
Dr. Adams is currently overseeing projects related to head injuries in sport, women’s health, mental health, and para-athletes with the long-term goal of reducing injury and illness risk and optimizing performance among elite athletes. Dr. Adams’ research expertise and interests are focused on optimizing human health and performance. Specifically, his interests lie in determining the role of habitual fluid intake on health and wellness, investigating the various facets of exertional heat stroke, and optimizing athletic performance. He has been either a lead or co-author on over 100 publications in both peer-reviewed scientific journals and edited textbooks on topics related to exertional heat stroke, maximizing athletic performance in the heat, hydration on human health and performance, and preventing sudden death in sport and physical activity.
Dr. Adams received his bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his master’s and doctoral degrees in Exercise Science at the University of Connecticut, and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Adams is also a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Frankie Brown
Dr Frankie Brown is an exercise physiologist, with expertise in exercise oncology and female athlete physiology. They completed an undergraduate degree in immunology at Edinburgh University followed by a PhD in exercise immunology at the University of Stirling. Dr Brown then spent 8 years at the University of Bath researching exercise in blood cancers before taking up a lectureship at Edinburgh Napier University. Frankie is also an ex professional and international footballer with 96 caps for Scotland, she spent 8 years in the SWPL with Hibernian FC and 7 years in the WSL with Bristol City WFC.
Tom Comyns
Dr Tom Comyns is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the University of Limerick. Tom is also an accredited Strength and Conditioning with the UK Strength and Conditioning Association and has worked with the IRFU and Sport Ireland Institute. Tom has in excess of €2.5 million is research funding and is the co-Principal Investigator for the Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance (IRIS) project. IRIS is funded by the IRFU and has been undertaken surveillance of injuries in community and school’s rugby in Ireland since 2016. Tom has supervised 12 PhD Scholars to completion, has 77 journal publications and in excess of 100 conference publications. His h-index stands at 26. Currently, Tom is the inaugural Chair of the newly formed Irish Sport and Exercise Sciences Association. In addition, Tom is an Olympic athlete having competed in the 4x100m relay for Ireland at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Niall Elliot
Sports & Exercise Medicine Physician based in Scotland at the Scottish Institute of Sport. 24yrs since my first sports medicine job with the Dundee Stars Ice Hockey team and a newly formed Scottish Institute. Since then I have been fortunate enough to work with and lead teams at (soon to be) 10 major multisport Games (Olympics and Commonwealth Games) for Team GB and Team Scotland. I am Head of Sports Medicine at the sportscotland Institute of Sport and Chief Medical Officer of the British Olympic Association.
Lars Engebretsen
Professor Engebretsen is currently the Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Oslo University Clinic and Head of Medical Sciences in the International Olympic Committee. He is the current Chair on the WADA Health Medicine and Research committee. Professor Engebretsen has published over 500 articles and book chapters, with a citation index (H-index) of 114. He is among the world’s most productive in clinical, epidemiological and basic science research in the areas of general sports medicine, knee ligaments, cartilage and prevention of sports injuries and illnesses. He has received research grants and awards from many agencies and associations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Norwegian Council for Research in Science and Humanities, the Norwegian Ministry of Health, the American Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and the International Olympic Committee. He and his group have won several research awards around the world, and he was inducted into the AOSSM Hall of Fame in July 2015 and became an ESSKA Honorary member in 2016 and ISAKOS Honorary member in 2017. He received the Nordic Prize in Medicine in 2016. He became an EFFORT Honorary member in 2022.
Engebretsen is involved with three research groups: Knee ligaments together with May Arna Risberg in Oslo and Robert LaPrade in Vail, Colorado, the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center co-chaired with professor Roald Bahr and emphasizing prevention of injuries and diseases in sports, and the Oslo Cartilage Group, which encompasses research from the cell to rehab after surgery, involving molecular biologists, pathologists, radiologists, physiotherapists and orthopedic surgeons.
Tom Fallon
Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist with a background in Sports Science and Exercise Physiology. Working clinically within elite sport and primary Care. PhD Candidate in injury and illness epidemiology within cycling. Clinical academic affiliate of the University of Edinburgh Sports Medicine Research Network and the UK Collaborating Centre for Injury and Illness Surveillance (UKCCIIS). Research Interests in injury prevention and rehabilitation and high-performance athlete development.
Rachel Faull-Brown
Rachel Faull-Brown is England Rugby’s Player Welfare Manager with a national responsibility for the community game player welfare and safety programmes. Her role includes leading the development of innovative evidence-based products and resources to provide high quality support and guidance across the game. Utilising the flagship RugbySafe programme, she is currently leading the development of a women and girls’ healthcare toolkit, a range of resources designed to address the main health and welfare issues that female athletes face when playing rugby. In addition to her professional role, she has over 20 years’ experience in rugby as a community and international level player, coach and workforce trainer.
Hege Grindem
Hege Grindem, associate professor at Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center, Department of sports medicine, is a researcher specializing in the treatment and prevention of sports injuries. With a particular focus on youth handball and football, as well as athletes with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, Grindem leads and participates in several significant national and international research projects aimed at understanding and improving rehabilitation processes and sports injury prevention.
Grindem has been affiliated with NIH since 2010 and defended her doctoral dissertation in 2014. She is a trained physical therapist and works clinically at the Norwegian Sports Medicine Clinic. Grindem’s research has received national and international awards. She has actively contributed to the development of several international guidelines for the prevention and treatment of knee injuries in sports, and represents Norway in the European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery & Arthroscopy Rehabilitation Committee. She supervises five doctoral candidates and several MSc students. Additionally, she serves as an associate editor for the journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therayp and the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Emma Lunan
Emma is a Sport and Exercise Medicine Consultant with a broad range of experience in treating musculoskeletal conditions within the general population as well as working extensively within amateur and elite sport. She has worked for a number of national organisations including the Scottish Football Association, Scottish Rugby Union, The Scottish Institute of Sport, Team Scotland and Team GB.
Emma has a keen interest in female athlete health and previously worked as the team doctor for the Scottish Women’s football team as well as undertaking female athlete health clinics at the Scottish Institute of Sport.
She is an honorary lecturer at the University of Glasgow, for the Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine postgraduate courses as well as teaching for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine.
Michael McArdle
Scottish FA, Girls’ and Women’s Performance Manager
Lead the strategic development of female talent in Scotland, including overseeing and implementing a range of programmes and pathways for talent identification within girls’ and women’s football.
Responsibility for high performance programmes and transitioning pathways into the Scotland Women’s National Team.
Personal Coaching History
UEFA Pro Licence & UEFA Elite Youth A Licence Coach with over 23years of coaching experience at all levels from Professional Youth, through Development to Senior Football.
MSc Advanced Performance Football Coaching Candidate (2018-23 University of South Wales)
Previously, St Mirren FC Head of Coaching, Assistant Manager of Ayr United Football Club.
& Academy Director of Forth Valley Football Academy (Falkirk FC), following 7years working within Falkirk FC’s Youth Development Programme.
Carrie McCrea
Dr Carrie McCrea is a Sports and Exercise Medicine Consultant with an interest in Mental Health in Performance Sport. She works primarily with the SportScotland Institute of Sport, where she leads on a range of sports and acts as Clinical Lead for Mental Health. Dr McCrea holds additional roles in swimming, motorsport, and professional football.
Dr McCrea has broad experience in developing and implementing mental health strategies in Commonwealth and Olympic Games settings, and has been appointed Mental Health Lead for Team GB for the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.
Duncan Meuffels
Dr. Duncan Meuffels is the president of the Dutch Arthroscopic Society (NVA) and the Dutch Sport Orthopaedic Association.
He is the orthopaedic consultant for several professional sports teams and dance companies in the Netherlands. As an orthopaedic surgeon at the
Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam, he combines complex knee instability knee surgery with scientific research and lecturing. He is an associate professor focused on sport and traumatic knee surgery and has published extensively on the treatment and clinical outcome of traumatic knee injury.
Izzy Moore
Dr Izzy Moore is an Associate Professor of Human Movement and Sports Medicine at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Following her PhD focused on the biomechanics and physiology of female runners, she completed post-doctoral research undertaking sports health epidemiology for several governing bodies to inform injury prevention and management policies. Dr Moore’s current research focuses on female athlete health, sports injury epidemiology and lower limb rehabilitation. She has received national and international research awards and is an Associate Editor for the British Journal of Sports Medicine and Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. She has secured over £1.5 million in funding and co-lead the development of the first return to play postpartum guidelines in a contact sport for World Rugby. Alongside international projects on developing female-specific guidelines, recommendations and prevention strategies within sport and exercise medicine, she co-leads Wales’ Women’s Reproductive Health Public and Patient Involvement group to help place the voices of experts by experience at the heart of sport and exercise medicine research.
Debbie Palmer
Dr Debbie Palmer is a senior lecturer in research methods and epidemiology in the Institute for Sport, PE and Health Sciences, at the University of Edinburgh. As a recognised injury prevention researcher her research focuses on epidemiology, risk and prevention of injury and illness in elite, youth and recreational cohorts, longer-term consequences of sport-related injury, and current and retired athlete health. She has worked with UK Sport, the English and Scottish Institutes of Sport, Arthritis Research UK (Versus Arthritis), the Rugby Football Union, Scottish Rugby Union, Scottish FA, Enduro World Series mountain biking, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Olympians Association. Current research projects include World Rugby studies in women’s injury prevention and new tackle height law change evaluation, and the long-term IOC Olympian Health Cohort. Debbie is co-founder of the Versus Arthritis Significant Ankle Ligament Injury (SALI) UK Cohort, and Co-Director for the new Edinburgh-Bath UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), IOC Research Centre of Excellence. She is also a three-time Winter Olympian (short track speed skating) and dual International (Great Britain Ice Hockey 1990-2009).
Nick Peirce
Prof. Nick Peirce is Chief Medical Officer for England and Wales cricket board and an Honorary Clinical Professor in Sports Medicine at Loughborough University and until recently one of the very first NHS Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine, spending over 20 years at Nottingham University Hospital, QMC, Nottingham. Until recently he was also a Special Consultant Advisor in Sports Medicine to Public Health England and continues clinical practice at the Spire Hospital, Nottingham. He advises a number of sports and has sought, where possible to combine a career in both elite sport, the NHS and academia.
Appointed as an NHS Consultant in 2001, he led in Health Improvement Strategies including Health Improvement steering groups, development of the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine, the ‘Active Hospitals program’ with PHE and links with ‘Active Notts’ and Community MSK and Exercise and Health services. Previously activities included establishing a National clinic for exercisers with Type 1 diabetes, Training Program Director, Council activities, National Recruitment and Workforce planning and working with PHE in relation to health improvement / mental health campaigns whilst holding trustee and board level positions
He has been privileged to work across many of the UK’s leading sports and athletes including spending nearly 20 years as Nottingham Forest lead doctor, 7 years as Lead Physician for the English Institute of Sport at Loughborough University, CMO for GB World Class Canoeing Program 1997-2017, Great Britain Rowing, Team GB at Sydney and Athens Olympics and for LTA Great Britain Davis Cup team 2001-2007. He has attended and overseen multiple major events including, IOC, ICC and Commonwealth Games. He appointed as CMO for the ECB in 2007 and has led the game through significant change and development of athlete medical services, navigating a balance supporting high performance and wellbeing, including the creation of a unique Duty of Care and Wellbeing department. He has since developed a particular focus on lifetime athlete welfare and mental health and clinical areas such lumbar spine stress lesions. He led the ECB to the only BMJ award for Sport and Exercise Medicine in 2013. He was awarded an MBE for services to sport during the pandemic. whilst holding trustee and board level positions
Babette Pluim
Prof. Babette Pluim is a Consultant in Sports & Exercise Medicine and the Chief Medical Officer of the KNLTB (Royal Netherlands Lawn Tennis Association) in the Netherlands. She is affiliated to the Amsterdam Collaboration on Health & Safety in Sports and the IOC Research Center of Excellence in Amsterdam. Babette is recognised as an Extraordinary Professor in Sports Medicine at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She has a PhD on “The Athlete’s Heart” and a Masters in Public Health.
Babette serves as a Medical Consultant for the ATP Tour, with a focus on cardiology, infectious diseases and general sports medicine. She is a Medical & Research Consultant for the ITF, and is a member of the ITF Sport Science and Medicine Commission. Since 2021, she has led the evidence-based review of the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Classification Rules and chairs the ITF Classification Science Advisory group with a commitment to advancing the standards of sports medicine and classification in the world of tennis.
She held the position of Editor for the British Journal of Sports Medicine from 2008 to 2020 and contributed to the field by serving on the WADA Health, Medical and Research Committee for eight years from 2005 to 2013. She will be TeamNL physician at the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024.
Ezio Preatoni
I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Biomechanics and Motor Control at the University of Bath, UK. I completed my PhD in Bioengineering (2007) at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. My research interests include human movement dynamics and coordination, with a specific focus on sports biomechanics, and on the use, development and integration of novel methods for the assessment of motor skills, learning, technique, injury mechanisms and injury prevention. I have designed and carried out research in sports collisions, which have informed changes in the laws of the Rugby Union scrum, and collaborated with the sports tech industry to validate and develop wearable tools to measure and assess movement behaviour. I am a Fellow and member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports.
Simon Roberts
Dr Simon Roberts completed his BSc and MSc degrees at Loughborough University before undertaking his PhD at the University of Bath, focusing on the physical demands of rugby union and nutritional strategies for performance and recovery.
Simon is a University of Bath Research Fellow working on the Community Rugby Injury Surveillance and Prevention (CRISP) Project which encompasses various levels of the game in England, ranging from community adult men and women, through to university and youth age groups. He has a particular focus on injury epidemiology, injury prevention exercises programmes and utilising video analysis for injury prevention.
Simon is a member of the Centre for Health and Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (CHI2PS) at the University of Bath and the UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS) which is an IOC research centre of excellence.
Kait Simpson
Dr Kait Simpson is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS). Her research focuses on the epidemiology of mental health and wellbeing in sport settings.
Kait recently completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh where she evaluated systems of mental healthcare in elite university sport settings and investigated opportunities for standardized screening practices internationally.
Before her PhD, she had roles within Special Olympics, the NCAA, the NFL Player Care Foundation related to athlete health protection and promotion. She was also a Canadian national level swimmer and NCAA Division 1 athlete.
Jörg Spörri
Prof. Dr. Jörg Spörri currently works as Head of Sports Medical Research at Balgrist University Hospital (Department of Orthopaedics, University of Zurich). He and his research group are particularly focusing on protecting the health of elite athletes and developing cutting-edge diagnostic and rehabilitation concepts in sports medicine.
Jörg Spörri has a methodological background in epidemiology, performance diagnostics, sports biomechanics and musculoskeletal imaging, as well as many years of experience as an athlete/coach in competitive alpine skiing, in the management of translational research projects and in university teaching/coach education. More recently, he has chaired several consensus initiatives of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) in the field of injury prevention and return-to-sport.
Kathrin Steffen
Kathrin Steffen is a senior researcher with a long career in national and international sports medicine research, and she is still associated with the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center where she has been the Head of Knowledge dissemination and been involved in sports medicine research for more than 20 years.
Kathrin now works as the Head of Research and Development at the Norwegian National unit for sensory loss and mental health, Oslo University Hospital.
Besides her full-time employment, Kathrin is a research assistant in IOC where she enjoys the team work of responsibilities for the monitoring and academic projects related to injuries and illness during the Olympic Games and Youth Games. Together with Professor Lars Engebretsen, she is the editor of the 4 annual IOC issues on Injury Prevention & Health Protection in the British Journal of Sports Medicine
Jane Thornton
Dr. Jane Thornton is a Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician and Clinician Scientist specializing in long-term athlete health and physical activity in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. She is a Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, with cross appointments in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Department of Kinesiology at Western University in London, Canada.
She is President elect of the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM), and a senior editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM). She is also a member of the Board of Directors for ParticipACTION.
Dr. Thornton represented Canada for over a decade in the sport of rowing, becoming both a World Champion (2006) and Olympian (2008). She now treats athletes and active individuals of all ages and abilities and advocates for movement as medicine.
Tony Turner
Tony Turner is a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Physiology and Director of Research, Knowledge Exchange & Impact for Moray House School of Education & Sport, University of Edinburgh. Tony is a member of the Human Performance Science research group, with applied experience as a physiologist and researcher working with performers in a range of sports, most recently in motor sport with partners ESP in the FIA Rally Star programme and W Series. He is also a member of the Edinburgh Sports Medicine Network and the UK Collaborating Centre on Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport, co-supervising research on injury surveillance and prevention in women’s rugby. Tony leads courses on the BSc (Hons) Applied Sport Science and MSc Strength & Conditioning programmes.
Nicol van Dyk
Nicol van Dyk is a performance health researcher and sports physiotherapist. He completed his BSc (2005) and MSc (2010) in Physiotherapy from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. After being involved in a number of different sporting environments as physiotherapist at the Sport Science Institute of South Africa, he relocated to Qatar in 2013. While continuing to provide clinical care for athletes he formed part of the Aspetar Injury and Illness Prevention programme at the Aspetar Sports Medicine Hospital. In 2018 Nicol completed his PhD in Health Sciences through Ghent University, Belgium titled “Risk factors for hamstring injuries in professional football players.” He has participated in policy development,such as the Musculoskeletal Task Force, Department of Public Health, Doha, Qatar, consulted on pressing social issues such as participating in Child Labour in Sport as part of Protecting the Rights of Child Athletes (Centre for Sport and Human Rights), and developed strategy around Research and Discovery for elite sporting bodies. Nicol is a deputy editor and editorial board member of British journal of sports medicine (BJSM), and holds advisory roles in the Sport Technology Industry. A clinical researcher with a special interest in musculoskeletal health and injury prevention, he has great appreciation for integrated healthcare, shared decision making, and evidence based practice.
Evert Verhagen
Evert Verhagen (born in 1976) is a professor specialising in human movement science and epidemiology. He holds a prestigious University Research Chair as a full professor at the Amsterdam UMC Department of Public and Occupational Health and the Amsterdam Movement Science Research Institute. Verhagen serves as the editor-in-chief of BMJ Open Sports & Exercise Medicine and holds the position of director at the Amsterdam Collaboration on Health and Safety in Sports, recognised as one of the 11 IOC research centers. Additionally, he is the Medical Research Advisor for UEFA. His research primarily focuses on the prevention of sports and physical activity-related injuries, covering areas such as monitoring, cost-effectiveness, and implementation challenges. Verhagen oversees the work of numerous national and international PhDs and post-docs and has contributed to over 360 peer-reviewed publications in these fields.
Jackie Whittaker
Dr. Jackie Whittaker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, at the University of British Columbia, and Senior Research Scientist at Arthritis Research Canada in Vancouver, Canada. As a recognized clinical specialist in musculoskeletal rehabilitation and clinical epidemiologist, her research takes a lifespan approach to preventing musculoskeletal conditions resulting from sport and recreational injuries, with a particular emphasis on the post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis. This includes reducing the burden of sport-related knee injuries by improving our understanding of the long-term consequences of knee injuries, and developing and evaluating exercise-based interventions to promote knee health. Central to her research is an integrated knowledge translation approach, involving patients, healthcare providers, coaches and others throughout the research-to-practice continuum. Jackie chaired the international OPTIKNEE consensus which produced world-first consensus recommendations related to preventing osteoarthritis after traumatic knee injury. Her research is guided by 21 years of clinical practice.
