The state of women’s sports is experiencing an unprecedented surge in popularity and recognition. Yet, significant challenges remain. While viewership and interest have skyrocketed in recent years, with events like the 2024 Women’s NCAA basketball final drawing record audiences, there’s still a substantial gap in investment, media coverage and financial parity compared to men’s sports.
One critical area where women’s sports have been disadvantaged is the historical lack of comprehensive data and analysis specific to female athletes. This data gap has hindered the development of tailored training programs, injury prevention strategies and performance optimization techniques for women. Relying on data primarily collected from male athletes has led to inaccurate or imprecise conclusions when applied to women’s sports, potentially impacting everything from player development to commercial viability.
As the industry recognizes this disparity, measures are finally underway to bridge the gap. These efforts are revolutionizing women’s sports through data-driven insights and strategies specifically designed for female athletes.
Kitman Labs, a global sports science and performance intelligence company, is changing how data collection and analysis affect professional women athletes. Working with the world’s leading leagues and teams and their staffs, Kitman Labs is now helping to build the systems and infrastructure to support pathways to success that previously existed only for men on a global stage.
“Why has it taken this long?” asked Stephen Smith, Kitman Labs CEO and founder, during a Zoom interview. “When we see the female game become so competitive, become culturally and socially important, and then we see what’s happening in terms of superstar female athletes, who are getting hurt when they shouldn’t be or shouldn’t need to be, and can’t get standard care, we have a duty to provide better infrastructure and a better ecosystem for these athletes and treating them like their male counterparts. We have to do a way better job. Those athletes deserve more for what they give.”
One area of data collection that will significantly impact protocols for treating and training female athletes is data gathered during each athlete’s menstrual cycle. Tracking the menstrual cycle is increasingly crucial for optimizing performance. It involves hormonal fluctuations that can significantly impact physical and mental performance, with many athletes experiencing symptoms like fatigue, cramps and reduced power during menstruation. By understanding these hormonal changes, athletes can tailor their training and nutrition to align with different cycle phases, potentially enhancing performance and reducing injury risk.
The National Women’s Soccer League has partnered with Kitman Labs over the past year. The technology started providing all current NWSL teams with a centralized and configurable operating system, aggregating and mobilizing all player medical data. The league-wide medical documentation and data collection eliminates data gaps, inconsistencies and inaccuracy.
Many League teams, including Los Angeles-based Angel City FC, combine performance data with player-level medical data to assess each athlete in real time. The data collection allows teams and leagues to understand the cause and effect within each player and dissect the uniqueness of the female body—recovery periods, biomechanics and how to screen for potential risk properly.
“One of our issues in female sports is we don’t have significant historical data, and that was a challenge for us when we came into Angel City,” explains Sarah Smith, head of medical and performance at Angel City FC. “We just did not have really good data to compare against. We don’t have public data available to us. We needed a consistent platform that had good and clean data. Suppose somebody is to come into our organization after I leave. In that case, there’s this historical record of what the players have undergone from a training perspective, how their muscle soreness was tracking, how their hydration status was tracking, how their sleep is tracking.“
Collecting and analyzing data also helps the younger generations of girl sports; it offers them a foundation built on evidence-based strategies tailored to their needs. With comprehensive data on female athletes, sports groups can develop training regimens, nutritional plans and injury prevention programs specifically designed to address these differences.
Additionally, this empowers coaches and trainers to create personalized development plans that enhance performance while minimizing injury risk. Insights into growth patterns, hormonal changes and psychological stressors unique to female athletes enable a more holistic approach to youth athlete development. Ultimately, this improves the health and performance of young female athletes and inspires confidence and longevity in their sporting careers.
“It’s the trickle-down theory,” shares Dr. Cindy Chang, chief medical officer at the NWSL. “When we establish and we do research and we show that whatever intervention that we’re doing makes a difference, we want that intervention to be able to translate down to youth athletes, high school athletes and collegiate athletes. We want to be able to make a difference, and when we do it ethically and responsibly, we share the knowledge in advance with all stakeholders about why we’re doing the research and what we hope the outcomes may be.”