Associate Professor Clare Minahan is an applied Sports Scientist with interests in the advancement of human performance and a key focus on the determinants of performance in female athletes. She has documented unique responses to exercise in female athletes including locomotor movement patterns, muscle damage, thermoregulation, and immune function. Clare has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, has successfully supervised multiple post-doctoral fellows and PhD students to completion, and is currently supervising ten post-graduate students embedded in Australian high-performance sport organisations. These context specific partnerships provide the avenue for vigorous academic research and direct applied sports-science translation. Clare’s research continues to influence a new generation of exercise and sport professionals to seriously consider the physiology unique to female athletes. In 2021, Clare was recognised by Exercise & Sports Science Australia as one of three Female Leaders in Exercise & Sports Science, in 2022 was named the Research Lead of the Australian Institute of Sports Female Performance & Health Initiative, and in 2023 was named in the top-100 female sport innovators in Australia by the Australian Sports Technologies Network.
Clare applies her knowledge of female athletes to lead the development, implementation, and delivery of ‘GAPS’; an inclusive sports pathway programme for emerging and para-sport athletes in developing countries of the Pacific. GAPS has been highly successful and is now formally recognized and supported by the Commonwealth Games Federation as their flagship sports development initiative for women in developing countries of the Commonwealth.
