The Kang Women’s Institute will operate inside the Soccer Forward Foundation and “establish research-backed best practices to inform the training and wellbeing of women and girls at every level of the sport.”
Tech billionaire Michele Kang, who owns the NWSL’s Washington Spirit and several other women’s professional teams, seeded the launch. She has donated at least $55M to U.S. Soccer.
Currently, only a small fraction of global sports research is dedicated to women. A recent analysis shows that only 6% of published research in sports and exercise journals is focused exclusively on women, a disparity that has left generations of female soccer players training under models built for male physiology. This gap has contributed to disproportionate injury rates, limited health guidance, and systems that do not reflect the realities of the women’s game.
The institute has begun work on a comprehensive national study to assess current and emerging needs at all levels:
Injury prevention
Mental health
Workload management
Menstrual health
Transition from youth to elite competition
Women’s sports are exploding in popularity, but girls are still about twice as likely to drop out of youth sports than boys as they age based on most of the available data.
We are going to see a lot more examples of governing bodies and other stakeholders seeking to identify systemic issues that are contributing to this retention disparity and then address them.
The accuracy/context/nuance of the commonly-cited data may be debatable, but this is nonetheless a fast emerging issue for the industry. And even if the numbers are not as lopsided in reality, the efforts are only going to improve equity and experiences for youth athletes and strengthen the ecosystem.
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