TED Business The flourishing future of women's sports | Kate Johnson
Jan 26, 2026
Kate Johnson, former Olympic rower and Google sports marketing leader, discusses how technology and algorithms still favor men's sports. She explores search bias, the investment visibility cycle, and why role models matter for girls. She highlights new players, creators, and AI tools making women’s sports more discoverable and urges practical actions to boost visibility.
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2004 Olympic Visibility Limitation
- Kate Johnson recounts competing at the 2004 Athens Olympics when social platforms didn't exist.
- She explains that athletes then depended entirely on broadcasters and journalists to tell their stories.
Feed The Algorithm New Content
- Think of platforms as libraries and algorithms as librarians who can only recommend what's on the shelves.
- To change recommendations, add more women's sports content so librarians can index and surface it.
Algorithms Mirror Historical Biases
- Algorithms recommend content from what already exists, and historical content heavily favored men's sports.
- This bias makes women's sports less discoverable despite growing talent and interest.