Why is one WNBA team calling in national security experts?
The Chicago Sky WNBA team is hiring national security experts to protect players from increasing online harassment and threats. This move reflects the broader challenges faced by women's sports as they navigate rising popularity and targeted political abuse.
Why it matters
This highlights the intersection of sports, digital safety, and the rise of targeted harassment against women in the public eye.
When Nadia Rawlinson came to be a co-owner of the Chicago Sky, Chicago's WNBA franchise, in 2023, she said her corporate career made her empathetic to the experiences of many players on the team.
"I'm an African-American woman who has been an executive in the private sector for my entire career [and] recently came into sports ownership about four or five years ago," said Rawlinson, who is also chairman of the team. "And so just being a 'lonely only' in the worlds that I'm in and excelling at the highest levels in corporate America and in sitting in public and private boardrooms, I instinctually understand that experience."
That background, Rawlinson said, also meant she understood at a personal level what her players were going through when they started to become targets of ugly, and sometimes frightening, online abuse.
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