Annual summit addresses female athlete health concerns

Participants at a female athlete summit August 1-2 in Indianapolis focused on research and educational efforts to address the female athlete "triad."

The term refers to a combination of disordered eating (anorexia or bulimia), amenorrhea (absence of menses) and bone loss (osteoporosis). At risk are females participating in sports that require intense physical training or endurance. Women competing in sports where a slimmer body is perceived to be advantageous also are at risk.

The NCAA, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and the National Association of Orthopedic Nurses hosted the summit.

Representatives from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) presented their position on the triad during the summit, including a clarification of how the components of the triad may develop in athletes.

"One of the most important refinements in the definition of the female athlete triad is the notion that each of the components occurs on a continuum -- one condition potentially leading to others, but not necessarily all immediately existing at once," said Jim Whitehead, executive vice-president at the ACSM.

The ACSM issued a call for further research with emphasis on the prevention and treatment of disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction, stress fractures and osteoporosis in female athletes. The ACSM also suggested outcome studies to assess guidelines for safe training and competition for female athletes with disorders associated with the triad.

The summit attracted about 30 sports and medical professionals representing 25 organizations, including the International Olympic Committee, National Federation of State High School Associations, U.S. Figure Skating and the National Athletic Trainers' Association.

The summit included presentations by representatives from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, women's athletics department and Jane Gottesman, author of "Game Face," a photo essay featuring female athletes.

The Female Athlete Triad Summit was developed to promote healthy athletics environments, establish public policy, effect change nationally and internationally, eliminate unethical and inappropriate dietary treatment for female athletes, and provide education and research about the issue.

St. Cloud State athlete make key interception

Ryan Walker, a football player at St. Cloud State University, got an early start on the season when he recently helped tackle an escaping robbery suspect.

Walker was assisting with the security during Lumberjack Days, a festival in his hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota, when he saw a man running and heard someone yelling to stop the man. After joining the chase, the St. Cloud State defensive end quickly took down the would-be thief as he was trying to climb over a fence.

The suspect was charged with two counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of simple robbery after allegedly smashing a display case at a jewelry store and snatching several pieces. All the merchandise was recovered.

For his part, Walker says he didn't know what the man was up to at first but saw that he was wearing surgical gloves and had dropped a mask. Later, someone told Walker that the suspect had tried to rob the jewelry store.

"I got to test my football skills," Walker said of the tackle. "He went down."

Rattlers to scale new Division I-A heights

Florida A&M University recently became the first institution to begin reclassification to Division I-A under the new Division I-A membership requirements. Should the school successfully complete the two-year reclassification process, it also will be the first historically black college or university to participate in Division I-A football since 1981. Tennessee State University, which was Division I-A at the inception of the classification in 1978, played in the subdivision until 1981.

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

BCS debut

A desire to pit the top two teams in college football within the existing bowl structure led to the development of the Bowl Championship Series, which debuted in the 1999 football bowl season. The BCS was an extension of the bowl coalition/alliance structure put in place in 1993 when relationships among major conferences (except the Big Ten and Pac-10) and major bowls (except the Rose Bowl) were modified to increase the likelihood of matching the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the country to determine a national champion.

In 1999, the Big Ten and Pac-10, along with the Rose Bowl, joined the alliance and paved the way for a four-bowl "series," in which the Nos. 1 and 2 teams, as selected through a computerized formula of ratings and other factors, would be placed in one of the Sugar, Rose, Orange and Fiesta Bowls on a rotating basis. The other three bowls would select the Nos. 3 through 8 teams as identified through the ranking system.

Proponents of the BCS said the system re-invigorated interest in the regular season, maintained the integrity of the bowl structure and quenched the public's desire for a national-championship game while providing increased access to the entire bowl structure for all conferences. Some NCAA conferences, however, believed the system was exclusionary.

In an April 1997 memo to selected media representatives, then-Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer responded to those claims.

"The restructuring continues in a more flexible manner the major conferences' historic relationships with the four major bowls, while also expanding access both to the No. 1 vs. No. 2 game and other bowl opportunities for all Division I-A institutions. Unfortunately, the perception has developed that this restructuring has somehow reduced bowl access for conferences such as the Western Athletic Conference and Conference USA. This is simply not true," he said.

"A simple review of the Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta match-ups before the establishment of the bowl coalition/alliance structure shows the major bowls' selection committees were not attracted to the champions of the WAC, Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference or the Big West Conference. Given this record of non-participation, it is difficult to square the perception of alliance exclusion with reality when the alliance system guarantees participation by No. 1 and No. 2 teams from any conference and opens up 25 percent of its berths to any Division I-A teams with eight or more wins."