WiNS: Women iN sports and science: A journey of a Jordanian women athlete, support staff and graduate researcher

Women were and will be in the sporting arena, it is their journey in the 21st century that is being presented through the lens of an athlete turned athletic therapist to studying a sports science and medicine major at the graduate level. So, what is a woman in sports and science (WiNS)? Why one needs to talk about women in sports? What stops women from physical activity and sports? What are the issues and challenges they face? Where are their aspirations and future paths? This perspective tackles these questions and describes the journey of the lead author and compares with a Japanese women athlete and a Japanese woman athletic trainer in context of what it means to be a woman in sports (athlete) and what does it mean to be woman athletic trainer (support staff). And it combines personal narrative, brief literature review, and cross-cultural comparison to highlight both shared and context-specific experiences of women in sport and sport sciences.