My name is Carmen Costa, I am 27 years old. I love outdoor sports, especially canoe slalom.I have studied for a Sports Science degree from the University of Lleida in Spain and an online master’s degree in education. I am currently studying to become a national slalom coach.
It’s been 17 years since I did my first strokes in my hometown Fraga. For the last decade I have been training in high performance sport in La Seu d’Urgell (Spain). I deeply loved training hard, competing, and traveling around. During my last season, my interest in coaching kept growing and I realize I actually also enjoy sharing and helping others finding their best in this incredible sport. I have always been looking for ways to improve as an athlete, linking my studies with my sport, and also questioning how others can perform better and make improvements. I am grateful for the values and attitude skills I have learnt all these years during racing with the team, and I am sure it will help me to be a better researcher and coach in the future.
After finishing my studies, my interest in research also increased. It is true that I find it a difficult field, which is not easy to find a group with your same concerns and curiosities. I have always been interested in women's training, postpartum recovery training and hormones among others. That is why I thought I would fit in this project. I was searching for scientific evidence to improve as a professional and help my athletes to grow, when I realized the fact that the scientific canoe slalom evidence is really poor. Besides, the female canoe slalom scientific evidence is almost nonexistent. Honestly, I find it extremely necessary to learn more about this issue, as the differences and particularities that both sexes present are obvious, such as: hormones, physiology, strength...etc.
Finally, I reckon it is also important to increase the number of female coaches. Many federations just have male coaches, that is good, but we need to break stereotypes. I truly believe it could be the game changer for the present and ongoing slalom athletes. Being involved in this project brings me happiness. Not only because I will be researching evidence for my favorite sport, but also, because I find myself contributing to the slalom community and helping the female future generation, and that is cool.
