"Billionaire Michele Kang has made a splash in women's sports with her goal of professionalizing women's soccer. She owns the Washington Spirit, the London City Lionesses, OL Lyonnes, and in 2024 launched Kynisca, a women's sports organization to power it all. Now, Fortune is the first to report, she's launching the Kang Women's Institute, an organization within U.S. Soccer's Soccer Forward foundation."
"Kang started this work through her own organization; after buying three clubs, she noticed problems compared to men's sports. "Why do we have more ACL injuries? Why don't we have enough female coaches and referees?" she was asking after entering the space with the capital she earned from selling her health care IT company. Earlier this year, she merged Kynisca's innovation hub with U.S. Soccer in the hopes that the federation's brand-name convening power would get researchers and study participants on board faster."
Michele Kang is investing in professionalizing women's soccer through club ownership and organizational initiatives. The Kang Women's Institute within U.S. Soccer's Soccer Forward foundation will research female athletes' needs, including injury recovery, postpartum reentry, and coaching practices for girls. Kang merged Kynisca's innovation hub with U.S. Soccer to accelerate research recruitment and participation. Total funding committed equals $55 million, with $25 million designated for the institute and $30 million for youth sports and coaching programs. Only 6% of global sports science research focuses on women. Women have often been treated as "small men" in sports science, contributing to concerns about higher ACL injury rates and a shortage of female coaches and referees. Emma Hayes served as a key adviser.
Read at Fortune
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