The Women’s Health, Sports & Performance Institute (WHSP) has launched in Boston as an organization dedicated to female athlete health, combining research, education, and clinical care. The institute is backed by more than $50 million in investment from co-founders David and Jane Ott and Clara Wu Tsai.
David Ott is a co-founder and Advisory Director of Viking Global Investors. Clara Wu Tsai is Vice Chair of BSE Global and co-owner of the New York Liberty, Brooklyn Nets, and Barclays Center.
WHSP was co-founded by Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, an internationally recognized researcher in female athlete health and founder of the international Female Athlete Conference. The institute is a member institution and research partner of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a $220 million collaborative research alliance.
“Female athlete health has been my focus for decades, and for decades, women athletes have been asked to perform without the benefit of research designed for them,” said Dr. Ackerman. “As an athlete, I felt the gaps. As a physician and researcher, I’ve spent my career trying to close them. WHSP is the culmination of that experience and will help us make real progress.”
Less than 10% of sports science and sports medicine research focuses solely on women, a figure that has not increased in the past decade. A 2025 analysis of nearly 1,500 studies in three major sports medicine journals found fewer than 6% included the menstrual status of female participants in the study design. Female athletes also have two to eight times greater incidence of ACL injuries compared to male athletes in the same sports.
