Spotlight

Players Health exec: How insurance helps close gaps in athlete safety

A few years ago, there were about 30 carriers offering youth sports insurance. Today? Just a handful. And rates are skyrocketing, all of which impacts the provision and affordability of programs. That makes Players Health, one of the few carriers still writing policies, a key actor in the rapidly evolving, largely disjointed landscape of youth and school sports. It’s one big reason why the Aspen Institute is excited to welcome Players Health to 63X30.

Chief mission delivery officer Kyle Lubrano recently talked with Tom Farrey about what the Minnesota-based firm brings to that table as it develops opportunities to get and keep more children playing sports.

MLS exec: Soccer system should work together to compete for best athletes, fans

Like other professional leagues that are members of Project Play 2024, MLS has come to recognize both the need and the opportunity to introduce programs at the very opposite end of the talent pipeline that delivers their commercial product. Tom Farrey, executive director of the Sports & Society Program, sat down with MLS executive VP and chief engagement officer Sola Winley to ask why.

USOPC’s Rocky Harris: Let’s “rethink” sport in America

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee occupies a unique place in the national and global landscape. The U.S. is one of the few countries in world without a ministry of sports or some government body to guide and fund sport development. Here, the closest entity to that is the USOPC, a private, non-profit organization that since passage of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act has been asked to “establish national goals for amateur athletic activities” and “encourage physical fitness and public participation” in sports, plus represent the nation in Olympic matters.