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USA Sevens: 'That long-spoken about rugby giant seems to be waking'
By Joe Harvey
With a sentence Michele Kang changed the direction of the USA Women’s Rugby Sevens team.
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After attending her first women’s rugby game ever at the Olympic Games, the businesswoman, investor and philanthropist felt compelled to invest $4m over the next four years to help the squad shoot for gold at LA28.
Minutes after Emilie Bydwell’s team had stunned Australia with Spiff Sedrick’s last-gasp try to claim a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, players and coaches huddled around a stairwell in the Stade de France for the 65-year-old to make her announcement.
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“I had some conversations last night, and this morning, and I have committed a million dollars a year for the next four years and the goal is to get you guys the gold medal,” Kang said.
On the social media video posted by USA Rugby, players can be heard breaking into tears and seen holding one another.
For those pioneers of rugby in their country, the investment was recognition for their thousands of hours working hard out of sight in a country where rugby scarcely has breakthrough.
But something about Paris was always different.
Since Bydwell’s introduction as head coach in 2021 the team had only ever seen improvement.
A fourth-place finish at the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa was duly followed by third in the HSBC SVNS Series a year later, everything suggested that the Eagles team were trending in the right direction under the competition’s only female coach.
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Off the field too Ilona Maher became a global superstar.
An established favourite thanks to her online presence established at Tokyo 2020, in the City of Light the 28-year-old shone brighter than anyone.
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Coming into the tournament Maher already boasted over 500,000 Instagram followers and across three days saw her following skyrocket by 257 per cent to over two million. Maher has nearly doubled her following again in the month since.
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Ex-NFL star Jason Kelce, along with rappers Flavor Flav and Snoop Dogg all watched as part of capacity crowds at the Stade de France and women’s rugby sevens took centre focus at the Games for two days.
Team USA progressed to the knockouts with relative ease and while hopes of gold were quashed by New Zealand in the semi-finals, playing the Wallabies in the bronze medal meant that the chance to head home with hardware was still very much on offer.
All the time that the team was searching for a result on the turf, in the stands a very different reward was emerging. Kang was already known to USA Rugby.
Friends with members of the governing body’s board has strong ties to France as the majority owner of Olympique Lyonnais.
Already, Kang has developed a great standing in the women’s sporting landscape.
Along with her ownership of Olympique Lyonnais, Kang is also the owner of the London City Lionesses, an investor in Just Women’s Sports and even part of the group that acquired Major League Baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles.
“Michele had showed up at one of our matches at the Olympics and was enamoured with it,” USA Rugby CEO, Bill Goren, said.
“She was able to talk to some of our board members and learn more about the girls and what sacrifices they make to do what they are doing.
“Through a board member, I got a call saying that she wanted to help the girls out.”
After hurried phone calls to Games organisers to get Kang a ticket into the stadium, Kang made the announcement to players that she would be helping fund their programme for the next four years.
“The commitment was already made to me before the game, whether we won the bronze medal or not,” Goren explained.
“It was pretty amazing. An absolute game-changer for us. That day is a blur because there was so much happening so fast.
“We were also playing for a medal. After all that was said and done, I left the stadium and thought, ‘Wow’. This just never happens. It goes to show the power of our women’s team.
“That has never happened, where anyone has said; ‘I want to make sure that you guys have all the tools. Here is $1m a year.’
“We do a great job of trying to raise money, trying to bring in sponsorship and all year we are rustling that up. This all happened in one day.”
Kang later revealed in an interview with The Observer that she had never even attended a rugby game before Paris and said that she was “very, very surprised” that no other investors had committed their own money before her.
Along with that financial boost, it is hoped that Kang will bring the immense expertise of Kynisca Sports International Ltd.
Launched with the aim of providing female athletes with the infrastructure necessary for success, the organisation vowing to a centre for innovation in women’s sports.
Looking at the commercial viability of women’s sports, creating high-performance culture and investing in femtech innovation to train females as females, all of this high-performance work will now be available to USA’s bronze medallists in the years to come.
“We have invested quite a bit,” Kang said, at the Stade de France.
“Actually, all global experts in female athlete performance are working with me right now. I am going to make them available for you guys as well. The race for gold at the 2028 LA Olympics starts now.”
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So, the path is clear for the USA as they start counting down to a home Olympic Games.
“When she said that, it was very clear the KPI she wants to see from the donation that she is giving,” Goren said.
“It is us getting the gold. That is a very clear goal. It is a gold that she wants.
“That is what we want to focus on as well. It is one of those things. We want to do it and we know what we need to do. It is thrilling.”
It was an announcement that, in part, melted away concerns for the future.
Operating as a fully professional entity from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s Chula Vista Elite Athletic Training Center in Southern California, the Eagles are funded entirely privately.
All year members of the board and their CEO are charged with raising the funds to send women’s and men’s teams across the world to compete at the highest level.
Over the years the Golden Eagles have helped provide funding the programme.
A non-profit organisation, the Golden Eagles’ goal is to help the men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams compete on a level playing field with other nations, as well as providing career advancement support for when players hang up their boots.
The investment from Kang now allows the women’s sevens squad to plan ahead more comprehensively.
“It is an absolute game changer,” Goren said. “It puts us on a completely different path.
“We are always trying to raise money, trying to fund the programme and pushing. We will continue to do that, but it just changes the level of opportunity we have.
“We have been trying to get certain tools. This allows us to get those tools and focus on winning. Not trying to survive.”
This guarantee of financial security and access to the otherworldly knowledge of Kang and Kynisca, the only way is up for the Eagles.
Starting with a trip to Dubai at the end of November, before travelling to Cape Town a week later as the HSBC SVNS Series kicks back into gear for another year.
There will be some changes to the Eagles after saying goodbye to several of its trailblazers.
Team captain Lauren Doyle, along with Naya Tapper and Jaz Gray all decided to bring their rugby-playing careers to a close.
As final acts go, winning a bronze medal is perhaps the perfect way to say goodbye.
Doyle, along with head coach Bydwell, was among the first USA players to receive full-time playing contracts over a decade ago and seen the team blossom into consistent contenders on the world stage over the course of her 12 years’ service.
With positions up for grabs in the squad, it could be a slightly different looking Eagles squad that next takes to the field.
Like with Canada’s silver medallists, some members of the squad have signed with Premiership Women’s Rugby teams in pursuit of representing their country at next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.
Alev Kelter has signed for Loughborough Lightning and others could be following in the 33-year-old’s footsteps soon.
With less than one year to go until the landmark tournament Maher has even expressed interest in turning out for the USA.
“This World Cup is going to take place in England and England loves their rugby and it is going to be a party, I have no doubt,” she said on TikTok.
“I’ll try to be there. I’m going to try to make that team, see if they can use me somewhere on that field.
“This is going to be so fun so keep eyes out on this. There’ll be games happening all over this year for you to watch and cheer and might be close to you so go check it out.”
In the weeks since their bronze the Eagles have stayed in the USA’s national conscience.
This has in part been fuelled by former First Ladies sharing imagery of the team to their Instagram stories and recognition from beloved childhood television shows.
As you would perhaps expect, Maher has also continued to be the face of this success.
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Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers, which boasts one million nightly viewers, to a Sports Illustrated cover photoshoot and was most recently announced as a contest on the latest edition of Dancing with the Stars.
Giving dancing a go for the first time, the 28-year-old will be sharing the screen with Super Bowl winner Danny Amendola and NBA legend Dwight Howard on a show that commands a regular and passionate TV audience.
Sammy Sullivan has been making waves on social media as her passion for Lego outside of rugby has seen the Army Point West graduate garner thousands of online followers.
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There have even been lifelong memories made for Kristi Kirshe by throwing the first pitch at Fenway Park ahead of a Red Sox game and Sedrick spent a day with NASCAR.
With back-to-back Rugby World Cups coming to American shores, it is a sign of what is coming in the future for rugby in the country.
“I am thrilled to be having it [the extra attention],” Goren said.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of that week that we would be getting attention from Michelle Obama to Elmo, I would have thought you were crazy.
“That is just indicative of what this has become.
“I knew this was a special team. They are led by an American woman. Full of Americans who are truly teammates, that care about each other and celebrate each other. And are also very good.
“We knew the opportunity was there, and incredibly marketable.”
It took two days for the fortunes of women’s rugby in the USA to flip on its head.
Insight from a leading force in the development of women’s sport was left awestruck by the sacrifice and commitment of players.
Quite how Kang’s investment will look in four years is unclear as of now.
But while that could be the case, with Bydwell at the helm, as well as the interest that Maher, and other stars of the bronze medal cause, brings is a good place to start.
The past decade has seen rugby really try to break into the American sporting sphere.
Major League Rugby started in 2018, the men’s national team have started their wholesale restart and women’s rugby is on the brink of professionalism too.
All of a sudden that long-spoken about rugby giant seems to be waking and the possibilities are seemingly endless.
