Nike-linked CoachingHER program faces scrutiny over gender bias training and definition of girls

Nike helped create a coaching program designed to keep girls in sports.

Three years later, the program is expanding into college classrooms and through a partnership with a national sports governing body, while its own FAQ defines "girls" to include anyone under 18 who identifies as one.

Sarah Barker, a former coach and creator of The Female Category , spent months reviewing CoachingHER, its training modules and the research cited to support them.

She told OutKick in an exclusive interview that what she found does not match how she believes the program is being presented to coaches.

"Everything about it tells me that it is not, in fact, what it is being sold as," Barker said.

NIKE SHAREHOLDERS REJECT TRANSPARENCY PROPOSAL AS FAITH-BASED FIRM QUESTIONS DEI COMMITMENTS CoachingHER launched in 2023 as a collaboration between Nike and the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota.

Nike said at the time that it developed the free digital resource to help coaches recognize unconscious gender biases and stereotypes that negatively affect girls' experiences in sports.

Barker first encountered CoachingHER through the Minnesota State High School League after spending 10 years as a coach.

She decided to take the course herself.

"I did the training modules and I interviewed the director of the Coaching Her program at the Tucker Center," Barker said.

Then she kept digging.

CoachingHER’s current FAQ defines "girls" as someone under 18 "who was assigned female at birth or who identifies as a girl" and says the program is "inclusive of gender-expansive identities," language Barker said was displayed more prominently when she first investigated the program in 2024.

For Barker, those few words change the meaning of the training that follows.

The CoachingHER website says its courses give coaches "girl-centered strategies" and tools to create "supportive, inclusive environments for girls in sports." Barker said that definition becomes especially important in a module addressing bodies and identities.