Skip to content

Development programme will provide bespoke support for aspiring female athletes

Aspiring female athletes across a range of sports will benefit from access to Nottingham Trent University expertise and facilities through a new ‘Female Athlete Development Programme’.

    Ten athletes aged 13-24, representing sports including running, swimming, gymnastics and weight lifting, have been selected for this one year programme, thought to be the first of its kind.

    They will now receive research-informed education from experts on a range of aspects relating to athletic performance.

    Bespoke support will span areas such as nutrition, training loads, performance testing, biomechanics, psychological input, sleep, and menstrual cycle symptom management.

    The programme is being delivered by NTU’s Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) Research Centre and as part of the University’s Women in Sport research theme, within the Department of Sport Science.

    As well as athletes, a key aim of the programme is to support and offer expertise to parents and coaches who play vital roles in young athletes’ career pathways and development.

    The programme launches on March 1st when participants will come together at NTU’s Clifton Campus and take part in workshops designed to build a bespoke support programme to meet each athlete’s needs, alongside their parents and coaches.

    As part of the programme, each athlete also has access to funds to support with travel to the university, and they will receive kit, sports store vouchers and nutritional products as part of the package.

    “There has been an overwhelming response for the programme, highlighting the need for specific female athlete support,” said organiser Dr Jessica Piasecki, Associate Professor of Female Physiology at Nottingham Trent University and herself a marathon runner who represented GB at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

    She said: “This is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time and it’s great to see it coming to life. I’m very keen to try to help provide inspiration where I can as many a female athlete inspired me over the years.

    “From my own experience as an athlete this kind of help was missing from my development to senior level competition. We need to better support and educate female athletes and those that surround them.

    “We are hoping this provides up and coming athletes with the relevant education and tools that they need to be able to remain healthy and perform at a high level. We are aiming for consistency and longevity within female sports and are very excited to build with the cohort we have selected, including coaches and family members.

    “We have plans to continue to evolve year on year, hopefully making athlete development easier to navigate.

    “There are many supportive partners that have helped this evolve such as Maurten, Loughborough Finance for Sport and The Athlete Place.”

    • Notes for editors

      Press enquiries please contact Dave Rogers, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 8782, or via email.

      Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been named UK ‘University of the Year’ five times in six years, (Times Higher Education Awards 2017, The Guardian University Awards 2019, The Times and Sunday Times 2018 and 2023, Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023) and is consistently one of the top performing modern universities in the UK.

      It is the 3rd best modern university in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023). Students have voted NTU 1st in the UK for student employability (Uni Compare 2025)

      NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across six campuses. It has an international student population of almost 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.

      NTU owns two Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for outstanding achievements in research (2015, 2021). The first recognises NTU’s research on the safety and security of global citizens. The second was awarded for research in science, engineering, arts and humanities to investigate and restore cultural objects, buildings and heritage. The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent.

      NTU was awarded GOLD in the national 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) assessment, as it was in 2019.

      NTU is a top 10 for sport (British Universities and Colleges Sport league table 2023). 
      NTU is the most environmentally sustainable university in the UK and second in the world (UI Green Metric University World Rankings, 2023).

    Published on 21 February 2025
    • Subject area: Sciences including sport sciences
    • Category: Press office; Research; School of Science and Technology