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PHF commissioner: League partnering with Athlete Ally for inclusivity training

PHF commissioner Reagan Carey discussed the league’s work with Athlete Ally. (Ker Robertson/Getty Images)

Last year, the Premier Hockey Federation underwent a rebrand, leaving behind its former identity as the National Women’s Hockey League. The name change was inspired in part by the desire to create a more inclusive environment, starting with the most front-facing aspect of the league.

Yet recent moves – particularly the Metropolitan Riveters’ hiring of Digit Murphy as the team president – have led to questioning of the league’s commitment to inclusivity across gender identities.

Murphy had been affiliated with the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, which has come under fire for its views on transgender athletes, though she cut ties with the group in May 2021 after those views came to light.

New PHF commissioner Reagan Carey acknowledged those concerns Wednesday in an interview with Just Women’s Sports. She said that league and team staff members have been undergoing training sessions in conjunction with Athlete Ally, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving sport for LGBT+ athletes.

“We’re looking forward to ramping up even more training sessions, just to ensure that we can be the most inclusive league, community and environment that we can be,” Carey told Just Women’s Sports. “That requires continued education. We’re not gonna take one class and get everything right.

“That’s the commitment you’ll see from me is that we’re just gonna continue to learn and grow and do it together.”

The PHF consulted with Athlete Ally when crafting its transgender and non-binary inclusion policies, which were announced last October.

Under the new rules, transgender women and nonbinary athletes assigned male at birth are eligible for competition if they have been living in their gender identity for at least two years. Transgender men and nonbinary athletes assigned female at birth are eligible to compete as well, but if they are taking testosterone, they must receive a therapeutic use exemption.

Since then, the league has announced a massive $25 million investment by its Board of Governors and has undergone personnel changes, including the hiring of Carey in April.

Earlier in April, the Riveters brought on Murphy as their president, which coincided with an exodus from the team’s front office, including the departure of general manager Anya Packer, who opted not to renew her contract with the team.

After joining the Riveters, Murphy apologized to the transgender community for her involvement with the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group. She first apologized in a video provided to The Hockey News before backing up the apology on Twitter.

“I am sorry I have been detrimental to the entire trans community throughout this saga,” she wrote. “It’s unacceptable and I am DEDICATED to improvement. I should have been completely forthcoming from the very start about my involvement with that group so that there would be absolutely no confusion about who I truly support. Letting things go on as long as they did led to increasing confusion and damage to the trans community.”

According to Carey, the PHF employees she has met so far have had intentions and efforts aligned with the mission of the PHF: to make the league a welcoming and inclusive community that strives to learn and grow.

“I would hope that [mistakes are] never made with any ill intent, and I don’t believe it has been,” said Carey. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to take ownership for that and we do. We’ll move forward and course-correct as we need to.”

The new commissioner wants the PHF to create space for conversations about difficult topics in order to help the league grow and move forward.

“If somebody’s close-minded and not willing to learn and grow, then we have a different situation,” she said. “So far from what I’ve seen, that isn’t the case with anything I’ve experienced within the league.

“Being able to help provide insights and have different opinions I think is going to be important. It’s healthy for us outside of sport, but certainly within sport and within the league.”

USWNT Vet Carli Lloyd Announces Pregnancy After ‘Rollercoaster’ IVF Journey

retired soccer player carli lloyd
Lloyd will welcome her first child with husband Brian Hollins this October. (Dennis Schneidler/USA TODAY Sports)

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

Project ACL addresses injury epidemic in women’s football

arsenal's laura wienroither being helped off the field after tearing her acl
Arsenal's Laura Wienroither tore her ACL during a Champions League semifinal in May 2023. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

USC enters superteam era with transfer portal gains 

Oregon State transfer and USC recruit Talia von Oelhoffen at 2024 NCAA women's tournament
Oregon State transfer Talia von Oelhoffen adds fuel to USC's 2025 NCAA title dreams. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

U.S., Mexico drop bid to host 2027 Women’s World Cup 

uswnt fans cheer at 2023 fifa women's world cup in australia
USWNT fans will have to settle for cheering on their home team from abroad in 2027. (Brad Smith/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.

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