Hannah Scott: Rower on breaking her ribs and discovering a treatment

Hannah Scott has damaged so many ribs in her profession, she’s misplaced rely.

“It was one thing I simply accepted and thought was regular,” Scott tells BBC Sport. “It is a fixed stage of ache that type of turns into normalised as a result of once you’re respiration, your ribs are consistently transferring.

“Day by day actions like laughing, coughing, driving, sleeping develop into extraordinarily exhausting. You’ll be able to’t put a solid in your ribs, you simply must work by means of it.”

Rib accidents, together with muscular ache, stress fractures and bone breaks, might be widespread for ladies in elite rowing, however not all the time on the charge Scott was struggling.

She sustained her first rib damage aged 18 whereas learning at Princeton College in the US and has had no less than two accidents yearly since, forcing her out of full coaching for weeks at a time.

However issues got here to a head final summer season when she sustained her most severe damage but whereas racing at Henley Royal Regatta, snapping her rib in two.

“My rib was damaged in half six weeks earlier than the World Cup and European Championships. It is demoralising since you’ve simply spent a full yr coaching after which half of your racing season is simply gone. That was the ultimate line of ‘we have to repair this’.”

After weeks of checks, Scott was despatched for a bone scan and recognized with osteopenia, a bone-weakening situation generally present in older girls, prompting her to contemplate retirement on the age of simply 23.

“I simply thought, ‘I am unable to preserve doing this to my physique’,” Scott remembers.

“I had misplaced perception. I used to be tearing my hair out. British Rowing actually picked me up off the bottom and mentioned ‘we’re going to verify this does not occur to you once more’.”

Seek for solutions

Scott’s seek for solutions led her to participate in a brand new British Rowing analysis venture.

Mission Minerva – named after the Roman goddess for struggle and knowledge – brings collectively elite athletes, college researchers and sports activities scientists underneath the identical roof, in a world first scheme.

Proposed and led by British Rowing, with help from the UK Sports activities Institute and researchers from Manchester Metropolitan College, the aim is to enhance help and understanding of the well being and efficiency of feminine rowers.

Utilizing saliva testing to trace hormones and the menstrual cycle alongside different coaching markers akin to coronary heart charge screens to measure exertion, coaching is now extra personalised and productive, serving to to supply athletes who’re more healthy and stronger.

Since participating, Scott has found her susceptibility to rib accidents was related to hormone ranges, under-fuelling and Pink-S (relative vitality deficiency in sport).

She mentioned: “Fuelling for ladies is so essential as a result of it offers us the vitality to coach on daily basis whereas additionally with the ability to assist our our bodies to perform. I do not assume as girls we have all the time had the stance of fuelling our our bodies for these functions, there’s positively a stance in society that we now have to look a sure method.

“However with this venture, we have realised the significance of consuming, taking care of your self, restoration and making our physique robust for efficiency, not simply to have a look at.”

Scott, who made her Olympic debut on the Tokyo Video games in 2021, has now been injury-free for the previous 12 months and discovered final month her osteopenia has been reversed.

She marked her aggressive comeback with a gold medal within the quadruple sculls on the World Championships in Belgrade in September and says the learnings from Mission Minerva gave her a new-found confidence on the beginning line.

“I knew a lot extra about my physique,” she mentioned. “I knew that my physique was robust. A yr earlier than I used to be sitting ready the place I saved snapping my bones in half. It is given me energy and management again in my very own physique.”

Mission Minerva began a yr in the past with simply eight volunteers. Now, all however a handful of the squad are participating. The hope is what’s taking place on the GB rowing base in Caversham will develop into a blueprint for different Olympic and Paralympic sports activities sooner or later.

Critical funding in feminine athlete well being appears set to proceed, with the UK Sports activities Institute not too long ago launching a devoted Centre of Excellence for Girls in Sport at Manchester Metropolitan College to supply analysis and information that can be utilized to help each elite athletes and feminine exercisers in most people.

Dr Wealthy Burden, the UK Sports activities Institute’s co-lead for feminine athlete well being and efficiency, informed BBC Sport: “Our intent has all the time been to be on the entrance foot.

“We need to be those who’re giving our athletes the correct help and knowledge and to do this, generally you do must push the boundaries and tread into the unknown.

“To carry tutorial and elite sport collectively in a single place, working collectively to enhance the help of feminine athletes throughout sports activities science disciplines, that is one thing we’re actually happy with.”

Scott shares that satisfaction, decided to assist the following era of feminine athletes.

“I’ve discovered by means of this venture the capabilities of girls’s our bodies to be stronger in sure methods,” she mentioned. “It isn’t that we’re weak, we simply did not have the help within the first place to be robust.

“I need to share my learnings with different girls who’re going by means of related experiences with their our bodies and coaching and managing hormones. We’re simply beginning to realise how essential they’re and when this venture got here alongside, I felt I had an obligation to youthful women and girls going into the game sooner or later.”