Interest in women’s sport has increased in recent years. This has resulted in more attention and in-depth discussions around increasing opportunities and access for female sports participants across all levels of sport.

The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris will be the first Olympics to achieve gender parity with an equal number of male and female participants anticipated to compete. Competitions such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Netball World Cup were features of women’s sports in 2023. These events have seen more female athlete role models emerge. There is evidence showing that female participation in sports is increasing across different sports and different levels of participation.

An increase in female participants is accompanied by an increase in coaches who are coaching females. Women’s sports might bear some similarities to the male equivalents but social, economic, physiological, and psychological differences, as well as alterations in sports rules are factors for consideration. Given the differences, approaches, tools of success, experiences, and obstacles facing coaches of female athletes, it stands to reason that evidence-based coaching recommendations and guidelines should be suitably nuanced to account for inherent variability present between women’s and men’s sports. Further research is still needed to understand the factors underpinning the enhancement of coaching within women’s sport.

This Research Topic aims to build on the existing scientific literature on coaching female athletes. Specifically, we welcome papers that address:
- Coach education to meet the needs of female athletes
- Needs and experiences of coaches, coaching female athletes
- Evolution of approaches related to coaching female athletes
- Considerations and adaptations when coaching female athletes at the grassroots level
- Coaching the recreational female athlete
- Coaching high-performance female athletes
- Mentorship of coaches of female athletes

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Frontiers in Sports and Active Living

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