Michele Kang Invests $50 Million to Boost Women’s Sports

Y. Michele Kang, owner of the Washington Spirit, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and London City Lionesses, announced the official launch of Kynisca Sports International Ltd, the first multi-team global organization dedicated to women’s soccer.

At the center of Kang’s vision will be the formation of Kynisca Innovation Hub (KIH), a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing female athletic performance. Unveiled by Kang at a Paris event on Saturday, KIH aims to raise $100 million to support its mission. Kang will contribute $50 million in combined seed funding and matching funds to support KIH.

“With so little investment in sports science focused on women, we have only begun to unlock the potential of female athletes on the pitch,” Kang said in a statement. “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.”

Even as investment in women’s sports grows, Kynisca says only 6% of sports science research focuses on women. KIH is dedicated to closing that gap, aiming to create the world’s largest database to answer questions about female health, wellness and performance. Insights from academic research and data analytics centers will help build new training protocols. KIH will be led by Washington Spirit’s director of performance Dawn Scott and the club’s COO Theresa McDonnell, who will be the executive director and CEO respectively.

Kang founded the technology company Cognosante, which Accenture Federal Services recently acquired. She is also part of a consortium led by Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein that recently took ownership of the Baltimore Orioles. She became the first woman owner of the first multi-club network in women’s soccer in February of 2023 when she bought a majority stake in OL Féminin, which owns the Olympique Lyonnais women’s professional soccer team that has won eight UEFA Champions League titles and is noted worth $54 million.

According to Sportico’s latest valuations, the Spirit, her NWSL franchise, is the fifth-most valuable team in the NWSL, worth $54 million.

Named after Cynisca of Sparta, the first woman to be crowned in the ancient Olympics, Kang’s organization aims to invest in other women’s soccer clubs operating around the world.

“We will provide opportunities for girls and women worldwide to access high-level sport, reach their potential under the best conditions, and play football in the clubs of the global elite,” Kang said in a statement. ​