Confidence and character gained through sports participation are the very tools girls and women need to become strong leaders in sports and life.
So says Dr. Amy Overlin, a primary care sports medicine physician at Banner Sports Medicine in Scottsdale, who notes that several positive things happen when girls participate in sports – regardless of their skill level.
“There’s the whole emotional and mental aspect of participation: better self-esteem, lower levels of depression, and less use of social media because they have another natural social outlet,” said Dr. Overlin. “Of course, there’s the physical benefits – if you’re exercising in high school, you’re eight times more likely to still be physically active at the age of 24. It benefits their bone density long-term, and reduces hypertension, diabetes and obesity.”
Dr. Overlin also says sports can positively benefit girls in the classroom and then in their professional career.
“(Female athletes) have higher grades, they’re more likely to graduate, they’re more likely to attend college,” said Dr. Overlin. “Ultimately, 94% of women that have C-suite jobs were athletes, so they’re developing all the skill sets to become successful adults. They know how to deal with failure and build that resiliency.”
Dr. Overlin has also noticed that more female athletes are interested in sports medicine careers. It’s the path Dr. Overlin took herself. She was a Division I gymnast at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, which she said set her up for finding her next passion, medicine and sports medicine. She has seen more women do the same. In fact, Banner Sports Medicine has the highest number of female sports medicine physicians in the state.
“Almost 20 years ago now, when I started my career, about 10% of nonoperative sports medicine physicians were females, so I was never trained with a female,” said Dr. Overlin. “Now, about 30% of nonoperative sports medicine physicians are female. And when these young girls come in, I hear, ‘Oh when I’m done with sports, it would be really cool to have your job and do sports medicine,’ and that’s how you start to grow that whole network and show them what their future could look like.”
However, Dr. Overlin said there is a challenge in getting girls to continue playing their sport through high school.
“At the high school level, [girls] have about a 25% lower participation rate when compared to boys, so we have less girls even just making it to high school to participate in sports,” said Dr. Overlin. “They also quit at a 6-to-1 rate. So for every one boy that quits, six girls have quit the sport during their high school years.”
Something Dr. Overlin said can help young girls continue on in their sports? Seeing women play those same sports, professionally, on television, such as the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) or the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
“Whether it’s Athletes Unlimited for volleyball, or the WNBA, or the NWSL, these girls are growing up in a day and age where they can see that on TV,” said Dr. Overlin, who is the team physician for the WNBA Phoenix Mercury. “The WNBA has been around for 25-plus years now, but for many years you couldn’t see the games unless you went. Now with these larger TV contracts, girls anywhere can see and idolize and have a vision of where they could go. It can motivate them to stay in their own sport longer.”
Dr. Overlin has a few final words of encouragement for increasing girls’ participation in sports.
“Introduce your girls to sports early,” she said. “Introduce them to lots of sports to find out what they’re passionate about, and then support them in it. You don’t have to perform at collegiate or professional level to get those benefits – so if you love the sport, keep doing it.”
She says that from the medicine and sports medicine perspective, the lessons learned from sports translate directly over for success: consistency, hard work and breaking up large tasks into small, tangible goals.
“It’s very exciting to be a female physician and be able to bring light to the issue of sports and the benefits of it in the female population,” Dr. Overlin said. “This is just one day to highlight those benefits.”
National Girls and Women in Sports Week is observed the first week of February.
