Meet Jessica Piasecki: the Olympian and researcher putting a focus on female physiology
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Team GB’s Dr Jessica Piasecki will present a special seminar on the menstrual cycle and its impact on sports performance in Stirling later this month.
Originally from Manchester, Jessica Piasecki was a talented hockey player before emerging as a cross-country star and representing her country for the first time in the sport at the age of 16.
In 2019, she became the first British athlete to win the Florence Marathon in 20 years and was subsequently selected for Team GB for Tokyo 2020.
Alongside athletics, Jess has also pursued a career in research and is currently an Associate Professor at Nottingham Trent University. With a special interest in female physiology and the impact of the menstrual cycle and menopause on female athletes, she is the guest speaker at a special seminar at the University of Stirling on Monday, 16 September.
“Tokyo 2020 was a whirlwind,” says Jess. “To be able to call yourself an Olympian puts a cherry on the top of your career, and it was certainly the pinnacle of my career. Although it was also a bizarre experience due to the Covid pandemic and the Olympics were very different from previous years. Athletes were terrified of being ‘pinged’ and being forced into isolation if they’d been in contact with someone with Covid. We had to do Covid tests every day and there wasn’t the usual spectators cheering you on. The marathon took place in Sapporo and on race day, we did have some crowds, but they weren’t allowed to cheer or clap!”
Athlete and academic
All female athletes – whether at club or professional level – should have access to information about the impact their menstrual cycle can have on their performance
The marathon had been moved 500 miles north of the Japanese capital, where temperatures are cooler, but the start time still had to be shifted forward by an hour due to concerns over the heat. Athletes contended with temperatures of 28°C and close to 80% humidity and a number of high-profile long-distance starts failed to finish the race. Plagued by a stomach issue, Piasecki crossed the line in 71st position, seeking medical attention at the finish line. Speaking after the event she told journalists: “It wasn’t the race I wanted, or a reflection of the fitness level I am at.”
Injury put a stop to her aspirations to compete at this year’s Paris Games.
“I would’ve loved to have gone to Paris,” Jess says. “But this year just wasn’t my time for a few reasons. But it is great to see the strength and depth of British female marathon running progressing so fast.”
Balancing running and research
Recently promoted to Associate Professor, Jess was able to balance running with her work and enjoyed being able to integrate her interests and experiences as a female athlete into the academic side of the sport.
“It gives me extra motivation,” she says. “My research is very focused on female physiology, whether the menstrual cycle, contraceptives, understanding menopause, understanding what happens mechanistically but also supporting females through what they do and don’t understand and try to then translate the research in order to better inform them.”
As a high-performance athlete, Jess does remember being part of the odd session on the female athlete triad for example, but feels there was a lack of consistency and wider knowledge sharing.
“I don’t recall coaches or parents being brought into those discussions,” Jess recounts. “Which, at that young age, is really important. Especially parents, they are the ones trying to make sure they’re feeding you the right things, are responsible for taking you to the doctors if needed and saying the right things.
“All female athletes – whether at club or professional level – should have access to information about the impact their menstrual cycle can have on their performance, as there’s behaviours athletes at all levels might adopt that aren’t necessarily good. It is more talked about now and I’m trying to use my work and experience to help better support younger athletes, but there’s still a gap there and education needs to be consistent and integrated in to coach training and learning for example.”
Personal insights
At her talk at Stirling, Jess will share her recent research as well as provide insights about her own experiences as an athlete and academic.
“We know that the menstrual cycle is unique to each individual,” Jess says. “Their entire environment can influence it – not just sports – everything else from family circumstance, stress, sleep. That’s what you have to have at the forefront of your mind when supporting female athletes – they are a whole human and have other factors that could impact their training and performance.
“Through my research, I found some changes in the menstrual cycle across neuromuscular firings. When you look at how nerves take signals from the brain to the muscle, that does change across a menstrual cycle but only at low levels of performance. When you go to a higher level of output, we found that female athletes often adopt ways of compensating for that. This is important to know for injury prevention for example, because an athlete might use a different part of the body at different phases in order to produce the same movement.
“A lot of studies in this area are carried out in a very controlled environment, where as an athlete in the field is obviously in a completely different setting. That’s when scientists and applied practitioners can clash – there has to be some sort of compromise in the middle,” Jess explains.
Challenges
As both an academic and an athlete, Jess would like to see far more research in this field but recognises the challenges.
“In the last 50 years or so the predominant participant pool for research has been men,” she says. “There are challenges – research is expensive and funding is hard to come by. We do need to have a think about the quality of studies – not to say that all female physiology studies have to be absolutely gold standard because it is expensive, but what is still deemed as reasonable, good, useful? We have to support early co-researchers working with small budgets to do those studies in different ways.”
Sponsored by The Physiological Society, Jess will present ‘The menstrual cycle and its impact on sports performance’ at the University of Stirling on Monday, 16 September. The free seminar is open to students studying relevant fields with sports coaches and others involved in female athlete development also encouraged to attend.
“I hope to encourage those attending that the future of female physiology is bright and inspire them that they can contribute to better awareness in this area – whether through their research or as someone involved in the development of female athletes.”
Dr Nidia Rodriguez-Sanchez, Senior Lecturer in Physiology and Nutrition at the University of Stirling, who organised the event, said: “The topic of the menstrual cycle and its impact on sports performance is very important because it focuses on an aspect of female athlete health that is often overlooked. For many years, the unique physiological changes that women go through during their menstrual cycle have not been given enough attention in sports science and coaching. This has resulted in a lack of specific training and support for female athletes, which can limit their performance and increase the risk of injury.
“By understanding how the menstrual cycle affects strength, endurance, and recovery, coaches and athletes can create better training programmes that help female athletes perform at their best.
“This seminar is an important opportunity to learn about the latest research and practical strategies for managing the menstrual cycle in sports. It is a key step towards helping female athletes reach their full potential and creating a more informed, inclusive and supportive environment in the world of sports.”
Sign up to attend
Find out more and sign up to attend ‘The menstrual cycle and its impact on sports performance’ via EventBrite.