When it comes to funding women’s athletics, Michele Kang continues to lead by example.
The founder of Kynisca Sports International, U.S. Soccer, announced that she would commit$ 30 million over the next five years to assist determine young talent and encourage professional development for women football coaches and umpires.
The donation, according to U. S. Soccer, is the largest ever given to the organization by a woman. It is also the most gifted for the women’s and girls ‘ programs.
” Michele Kang’s gift will transform soccer for women and girls in the United States”, U. S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. ” It will impact generations of women and girls in our game, including players, coaches and referees”.

With six camps for its youth national teams per age group, U.S. Soccer will have access to the investment, which will double the number of national team camps. The organization could also expand its digital talent identification program, which seeks to identify future national team players and potentially grants 100, 000 female players access.
Additionally, there will be more opportunities for professional development for coaches and referees as more than 70 000 additional female coaches and referees will have access to mentorship and education.
Throughout 2024, Kang has expanded her investment portfolio throughout women’s sports, starting with the founding of Kynisca this spring. Kynisca is the first multi-team global company dedicated to women’s sports, with her three soccer clubs—the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, France’s Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and England’s London City Lionesses—under the umbrella.
Kang has stated that expanding the knowledge and support for female athletes ‘ science is a key component of her investment strategy. ” In my healthcare business days, I focused on a certain area, but I invested in other areas so that we’re all coming along”, Kang said during U. S. Soccer’s press conference Tuesday afternoon in New York. ” We need to bring everything else along, and that was really what was driving the investment, not only the clubs, but the cleats, the health research and training methodology”.
After the women’s rugby sevens team won the bronze medal at the most recent Summer Olympics in Paris, Kang announced a$ 4 million gift to USA Rugby. For women’s footwear brand IDA Sports, Kynisca led a seed funding round in October that will boost the company’s research and development of soccer cleats for female players.

Kang is n’t the only person who has invested in U.S. soccer this year thanks to the co-founded medical tech company Cognosante and the venture capital firm Cognosante Ventures. The new men’s national team manager Mauricio Pochettino, who signed a two-year,$ 12 million deal thanks to donations from Citadel LLC founder Ken Griffin and Diameter Capital co-founder Scott Goodwin. ( The donations also funded Pochettino’s staff as well as the buyout of Gregg Berhalter, all totaling around$ 20 million. )
Additionally, Arthur Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, contributed$ 50 million to the construction of a new national training facility in Atlanta that will bear his name when it will be finished in 2026, the year the United States will co-host the men’s World Cup along with Canada and Mexico.
( This has been updated with additional Michele Kang quotations in the seventh paragraph. )