Six months before Kim Ng made history as the first Asian-American woman to become general manager of a major sports franchise, Ilene Tsao was taking part in an annual forum discussing the Asian diaspora’s relationship with sport. Tsao, of Taiwanese descent, is an associate manager in Global Partnerships at the NBA and met Ng in 2018 at the same forum, the Asians in Sports & Culture Symposium. She is one of a growing number of Asian women making an impact in US and global sports and whose profiles have been raised on the back of Ng’s success. “I was very excited to hear the news and look forward to seeing Kim, who I first met in 2018 at an NBA-MLB-NFL Asians in Sports Panel, succeed as a GM,” said Tsao, who had an outstanding college basketball career with the Emory Eagles. “Seeing another Asian-American woman rise to the top of the sports industry is inspiring and demonstrates that I can do it, too.” Ng, 52, was appointed GM of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins in November, having been turned down by six teams over 20 years despite being more than qualified for a management role in a white male-dominated landscape. May’s joint NBA, NFL and MLB symposium was aimed at bringing to the fore Asian-American contributions to the sport in the US and abroad. It was co-chaired by Tsao and Gautam Kapur, of the NBA Employee Resource Group’s Asian Professional Exchange. “It was through the vision of Gautam Kapur and Ilene Tsao that they were already setting the ground at these other levels of outreach to Asian-Americans, and these realms are also opening up for Asian-American engagement,” said Stan Thangaraj, assistant professor of anthropology, gender studies and international studies at the City College of New York. “What the [Asian[ diaspora has done is often look towards men as the emblems of that diaspora and emblems of American-ness. We have not acknowledged the Asian-American women who have made an impact. Our own success stories are mostly told through men rather than being told through merit and accomplishment,” added Thangaraj, author of Desi Hoop Dreams: pickup basketball and the making of Asian American masculinity . Tsao is among those looking to follow the path of Ng, not necessarily as general manager of a team but in other leadership roles within sport. Thangaraj identified Natalie Nakase and Christy Thomaskutty – along with Tsao – as Asian-Americans who are excelling in their fields. Nakase, 40, had a strong college career playing for UCLA and played professional basketball for the San Jose Spiders and San Diego Siege in the NWBL. She is now player development assistant coach at the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers – one of eight women in the league’s coaching staff – and is seen as a potential future head coach. Thomaskutty, whose parents were from India, was a stand-out college player for Tulane, setting a number of records and was head coach at Emory for 14 years. Retired as a coach, Thomaskutty is enjoying a new career in journalism with ESPN. Ada Milby is an example of an Asian-American who left for her ancestral home to find success at the highest level. Milby, 37, grew up in the small town of Tipp City in Ohio, thrived in a 12-year career as a figure skater, played American football with the boys for a season before falling in love with rugby at college. She eventually went to the Philippines where she still plays for the national 15s and sevens teams and earlier in December became the first women to be elected president of the Philippines Rugby Football Union. Milby can relate to the struggles of Ng, who overcame gender bias and discrimination to finally reach the top. “There are similarities, with some people saying she shouldn’t be doing this because it’s ‘not your space’ and then you get others saying, ‘you got this and we’re behind you’,” said Milby. “It’s at a stage where it’s far from being normal so you are going to get a lot of different comments and feedback from different personalities depending on where they stand on the issue. “But the reason it’s such a hot topic is because it’s not normalised yet.”