Advancing global equity, diversity and inclusion in sport and exercise medicine consensus and research : deliberate, thoughtful steps from the FAIR consensus

Abstract

As sport and exercise medicine (SEM), researchers and practitioners strive to enhance athlete health and safety; they must include globally diverse perspectives in research too—this is essential for integrity, international relevance and impact. Yet, the voices of globally under-represented athletes and communities that support them (eg, diverse racial, sociocultural, religious, socioeconomic, language and ethnic groups) are scarce. Without intentional global inclusion, especially from Global South Territories (including Africa, Asia and South America) and under-represented countries across all continents, we risk reinforcing systemic inequities and missing critical insights that could transform and advance SEM research and practice. This is particularly important for metaresearch (eg, reviews, consensus and guidelines), which aims for global impact. This editorial arises from reflections on the Female, Woman and/or Girl Athlete Injury pRevention (FAIR) Consensus 2025. While we focus here on global inclusion, we acknowledge the broad ranges of equity-deserving groups who are absent from SEM research.4–6 Female/women/girl athletes with multiple identities that cut across other under-represented groups (eg, female First Nations athletes and non-English speaking Para sport athletes) may face compounded barriers that affect their capability, opportunity and motivation to participate in research and access evidence-based injury prevention recommendations.