1. Prof. Dr. Christa Janse van Rensburg

A qualified rheumatologist and Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine (SEM) at the University of Pretoria (UP), she is a founding member of the College of SEM in South Africa and a Past President of the South African Sports Medicine Association (SASMA). She is also a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and a member of the ACSM Board of Trustees. She was a member of the Scientific Committee of the IOC World Conference (Monaco, 2021 and 2024). She serves as the Chairperson of the Medical Advisory Panel of World Netball and serves as a member of the International Tennis Federation’s Classification Science Advisory Group. She was a committee member of FIFA’s Consensus Meeting on Injury and Illness Surveillance Methodology. She received an Exceptional Academic Achievers Award from UP in 2025. As the Director of the Sports Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Institute (SEMLI) at UP, she regularly presents at conferences and has lectured for the Royal Society of Medicine. Her peer-reviewed publications exceed 100, and her DMed (PhD) demonstrated that exercise benefits patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Her current research focuses on travel in athletes and the epidemiology of injuries and illnesses across various sports disciplines. She has accompanied teams as a sports physician to the Olympic, Commonwealth, and All-African Games and served as a Venue Medical Officer (VMO) for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. She continues actively practising as a rheumatologist with a special interest in SEM.