Number of Awards Given: 1/year

The Drinkwater Leadership Award in Women’s Health, Sport & Physical Activity celebrates mid-career members who demonstrate exceptional leadership in the area of women’s health, sport and physical activity — to include research focused on women, clinical care of women or other work focused primarily on women.
The award is given in honor of Barbara L. Drinkwater, PhD, FACSM, who served as an ACSM trustee, vice president and president (1988-89) — the first woman to be elected to all three positions. Dr. Drinkwater was a role model in ACSM, receiving the Citation and Honor Awards and delivering both the D.B. Dill Historical Lecture and the Wolffe Memorial Lecture. Her storied career focused on girls’ and women’s health, exercise and physical performance. To learn more about Dr. Drinkwater, read Honoring Dr. Barbara L. Drinkwater.
The inaugural recipient of the original Drinkwater Award was Ms. Claudia Navarro from the Lorena Ochoa Golf Academy, Mexico, in 2010.
The award is offered through generous donations to the Women’s Health, Sport & Physical Activity Fund. Major donors to the fund include Larry Boot, Barbara Drinkwater, PhD, FACSM, and Linda and James Pivarnik, PhD, FACSM.
Eligibility:
Award Requirements:
Please contact the ACSM Foundation with questions regarding this award.
This session explores the physiology of hydration through an integrated lens—examining how carbohydrate, sodium, flavor, and fluid interact to influence intake, absorption, retention, and performance. We’ll review current research on fluid balance, osmotic drivers, and palatability, highlighting mechanisms that underpin voluntary intake and thermoregulation. Attendees will gain insight into individualized strategies, including sweat profiling and timing approaches, to optimize euhydration and mitigate performance decrements associated with >2% body-mass loss. Practical applications will be linked to laboratory- and field-based research, ensuring translation from bench to field. This pre-conference equips you with evidence-based tools to support athlete hydration across diverse environments and sporting contexts.