American businesswoman Michele Kang will invest $50 million USD ($77 million AUD) into women’s sport through her global organisation, Kynisca Sports International.
The money aims to develop training methods, facilities, technologies and more for women athletes around the world, with the first investment going towards the US Rugby Sevens women’s team, who recently won the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Kang said she will give $4 million USD ($6.16 million AUD) over the next four years to the team in preparation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“2024 has been a banner year for women’s sports with record-breaking attendance and viewership, and women’s rugby is no exception,” Kang said.
“This Eagles team, led by players like Ilona Maher and co-captains Lauren Doyle and Naya Tapper, has captivated millions of new fans, bringing unprecedented attention to the sport. I am so happy to support these outstanding athletes to realize their dream in capturing the gold in Los Angeles in 2028. That work starts now.”
The moment the USA Women's Rugby Sevens team found out they were receiving a $4 million investment from women's sports investor Michele Kang 🇺🇸
— Rugby Sevens (@SVNSSeries) August 1, 2024
🎥 @USARugby #Paris2024 | #RugbySevens pic.twitter.com/P87nWDl37h
It’s not the first time Michele Kang has invested in women’s sport. In 2022, she took ownership of the Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the US. Kang became the first woman of colour to own a team in the league.
In December 2023, Kang acquired the London City Lionesses in the English Women’s Super League (WSL). The club is the first and only independent women’s football club in the WSL.
In February this year, Kang officially became the majority owner of the Olympique Lyonnais Féminin in the French professional league.
Owning three women’s football clubs, Kang’s vision to level the playing field for women and men in sport came to a head with the launch of her new company, Kynisca Sports International Ltd this week.
The global, mult-team organisation involving the three clubs she owns is the first of its kind. It aims to invest in femtech, infrastructure, and more to elevate women’s sport around the world.
Studies have shown just 6 per cent of sports science research is dedicated to women athletes: in fact, most research is based on the body of a 70kg white male. This ultimately affects the performance, rate of injury, and eve drop-out rate of women in sport.
In Australia, recent research from the University of South Australia found players in the South Australian National Football League Women’s were at greater risk for concussion and ACLs than male athletes in the AFL.
In launching Kynisca, Kang announced her new organisation will also run the Kynisca Innovation Hub to build new technologies, develop new global strategies and provide better, more specific support for women in sport that challenges the male-, Euro-centric standards in sports science research.
“We are not going to borrow a manual from the men,” Michele Kang said. “We want to understand women’s physiology and biology and train our athletes according to that.
“With the necessary backing, Kynisca aims to inspire young girls to pursue their dreams and embrace a career in football on a scale and level of professional success that should not be reserved only for their male peers.
“With so little investment in sports science focused on women, we have only begun to unlock the potential of female athletes on the pitch.
“Kynisca Innovation Hub will become a pioneer of female performance research – so we can stop training women as if they are simply small men – and unlock their true potential.”