Team-Level Approaches to
Athlete Wellbeing in
Professional Women’s Soccer
Professional women’s soccer is facing a crisis of athlete wellbeing as clubs grapple with the pervasive harassment, abuse, and neglect of players. While US Soccer, the NWSL, and the NWSLPA have published investigations and recommendations to address systemic failures and protect players, academic research into the issue of athlete wellbeing has, until now, been a critical missing piece. Our research finds that responses focused solely on preventing misconduct will not be enough: teams must invest in holistic approaches to athlete wellbeing in order to create supportive and healthy environments for their players. This paper provides a high-level summary of our initial findings that we’ll continue to build upon as our research progresses.