In a significant move for women's sports, Gatorade has initiated a groundbreaking research partnership with the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) to tackle a long-standing inequity in athletic performance science. For decades, the development of sports energy drinks and hydration strategies has been based predominantly on research involving male athletes, leaving female professionals to train using data that may not suit their physiological needs.
Addressing a Historical Gap in Sports Science
The Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) has launched a landmark initiative that will test 100 PWHL players from the league's four Canadian teams located in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver. This study, announced in November 2025, marks a pivotal step toward establishing comprehensive female hydration data specifically for hockey.
Historically, female physiology has been severely underrepresented in sports science research, with as few as 6% of previous studies including women. This disparity has forced generations of female athletes to adapt training and hydration regimens based on male-centric data, potentially limiting their performance optimization.
PWHL Leadership Embraces Progressive Partnership
Jayna Hefford, the PWHL's Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations and an Olympic gold medalist herself, expressed enthusiasm for the initiative. She noted that during her celebrated playing career, the concept of a sports drink specifically designed for female athletes never crossed her mind, making this development particularly meaningful.
"Gatorade has been a partner of ours since we began," Hefford stated. "This wasn't something we had to pitch to them. They came to us asking how they could do more, how they could help improve women's sport performance. This is just an evolution of that partnership."
When asked if the historical lack of female-focused research surprised her, Hefford responded, "Sadly, no. We see this in visibility and coverage too. Even outside of sport, research for women and women's health is quite low. This was a good reminder that we are still not there yet, which makes this work that much more important."
Immediate Benefits and Long-Term Impact
Participants in the Canadian-based study will receive their individual results immediately, allowing them to apply the findings to their training and performance during the current season. The broader data collected will be analyzed and shared with the sports science community, establishing new hydration and nutrition benchmarks specifically for female hockey players.
This PWHL initiative is part of a larger GSSI research project that will ultimately include hundreds of athletes across multiple sports. By 2026, the complete study is expected to deliver comprehensive, female-specific performance data that could transform how women athletes approach hydration and nutrition across various disciplines.
Hefford emphasized that introducing the study to PWHL players required no convincing. "This is not a hard sell," she explained. "Players want to improve their performance all the time and they want research that will back that up. It will be exciting for them to be a part of this."
The partnership represents a significant investment in women's sports at a professional level. As Hefford pointed out, "Seeing that 6% number, there is a lot of room for improvement, right?" This collaboration between Gatorade and the PWHL not only addresses a critical gap in sports science but also signals growing recognition of the unique needs and potential of female athletes.
