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When Forbes invited Cherry Beagles of The 400 Club to speak at its Under 30 Summit, the message was clear: artificial intelligence isn’t just a Silicon Valley buzzword anymore — it’s being woven into the fabric of sport, from performance labs to the stands. Beagles, a young entrepreneur who has built a commercial bridge between brands and female athletes, argued that AI can push athletes farther and help fans connect deeper than thirty-second highlight reels ever could. The appearance underscored how fast a private-sector, market-driven approach is reshaping an industry that used to be defined by grit and live competition.
Beagles’ The 400 Club has carved out a sensible niche by pairing female athletes with brands and commercial opportunities, proving that entrepreneurship, not government mandates, is the most effective engine for expanding sports’ reach. Her work — celebrated by Forbes and included in the Under 30 roster — shows how young creators and organizers can turn genuine fan demand into real economic power for athletes. Conservatives should cheer this kind of bottom-up success: private initiative, sponsorship deals, and real accountability lift athletes and communities without heavy-handed state involvement.
The promise of AI for athletic performance is tangible: coaches can personalize training, medical teams can monitor recovery with far greater precision, and analytics can expose subtle weaknesses opponents once exploited in secret. Startups and platforms are already using machine learning to stitch together multi-angle footage, predict injury risk, and quantify movement patterns in ways coaches couldn’t before. But the conservative instinct must be to temper excitement with common-sense skepticism — tools should enhance human coaching and toughness, not replace the discipline and mentorship that make real champions.
On the fan side, AI promises individualized content experiences that keep supporters engaged long after the final whistle: tailored clips, behind-the-scenes storytelling, and automated highlight packages aimed squarely at what each fan wants to see. That’s good for business and for athletes building brands, but it also hands enormous power to platforms and advertisers that monetize attention and personal data. If conservatives value free markets, we must also insist on strong property rights over personal performance data and transparency about how that data is used and sold.
There are human costs to this rush toward algorithmic curation. The “highlight reel” culture already warps expectations, inviting constant comparison and pressure that damages mental health and steals focus from fundamentals. Coaches and parents should demand safeguards, and league leaders must prioritize athlete well-being over click-driven engagement metrics. Preserving the character-building aspects of sport means pushing back against any technology that elevates spectacle over substance.
It’s also worth noting how this technological wave intersects with the commercial rise of women’s sport — a market opportunity The 400 Club has capitalized on by helping female athletes find lucrative partnerships. Market-driven growth that rewards excellence and audience demand is a healthy corrective to the old gatekeepers who underinvested in women’s leagues. Yet conservatives should remain vigilant against hollow virtue-signaling by brands that use progressive slogans while chasing profits and pushing cultural agendas into the locker room.
Policymakers and industry leaders ought to craft sensible rules rooted in property rights, contractual clarity, and voluntary standards rather than heavy regulatory schemes that strangle innovation. Encourage private-sector standards for data ownership, support athlete-led organizations that negotiate fair terms, and let entrepreneurs like Beagles grow markets that reward fans and players alike. That balance protects privacy and liberty while allowing American ingenuity to lead the world in sports technology.
The future of sports will be written by those who blend innovation with common-sense values — fans who want real competition, entrepreneurs who build true opportunities, and communities that protect their athletes from exploitation. If conservatives stand for anything, it should be defending the right of athletes to profit from their talent, safeguarding families and youth from voyeuristic data grabs, and celebrating market-based solutions that keep sports honest and competitive. That is how we keep the game worth watching and the players worth cheering for.
