Empowerful girls – rewriting the social context of the first sports injury experience

An athlete’s first experience with sports injury and recovery often occurs during adolescence — a critical developmental stage both physically and psychosocially. Because a previous injury is the strongest predictor of future injury, the first injury is arguably the most influential in shaping an athlete’s lifelong relationship with sport, pain, and recovery. Dr Loretta O'Sullivan-Pippia is a Specialist Sports and Exercise Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists in 2007) with a sub-speciality in adolescents in sport. In addition to a Bachelor in Physiotherapy (UQ1993) and a post-graduate diploma in sports physiotherapy (Curtin 1997), I have a doctorate in clinical physiotherapy (U of M 2011). Her doctorate focused on adolescents in sport and advanced practice physiotherapy and her research investigated knee cap pain in active adolescent females.