Visa Welcomes More than a Hundred Athletes to Team Visa Ahead of Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024
Riyadh, KSA – November 9, 2023 – Today, Visa (NYSE: V), the Worldwide Payment Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, unveiled the current list of 117 athletes joining Team Visa for Paris 2024. The 2024 class is the largest group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls in the program's history and the most diverse, representing more than 60 markets and 40 sports including new additions Breaking.
Team Visa athletes from around the world attended the recent Team Visa Summit in Paris for a two-day, creator-led content master class focused on brand immersion and best practices for how to tell their own stories within the broader creator economy.
“Today, athletes have the power to tell their own stories, transform fans into community, and generate commerce through their own creations,” Frank Cooper, Chief Marketing Officer, Visa. “We gathered the Team Visa athletes in Paris to help them further develop their skills as creators and to find new and effective ways to communicate, engage and inspire people around the world.”
Team Visa Summit: A Master Class in Creator Storytelling
Visa transformed a future site of Paris 2024 into a creator playground by tapping into cultural touchpoints across art, technology, music, sport, fashion and food. Guided by cultural influencers and best-in-class social media creators, athletes learned to express themselves through these passion points while also learning hands-on social platform tips for elevating their personal brand and storytelling prowess.
Cultural influencers and creators were on hand as athletes participate in content challenges and collaborative sessions that included learning a new sport, creating an exclusive music track, trying their hand at street art, and capturing trending social media content around Paris.
Team Visa also met with youth from Sport Dans La Ville, a leading association for professional integration through sport in France, to accentuate Etienne Bardelli’s inspiring mural in Stade Elisabeth to celebrate the community and incentivize youth sports participation.
Team Visa for Paris 2024 By the Numbers:
Since 2000, the Team Visa athlete program has championed more than 600 Olympic and Paralympic athletes selected based on their athletic achievements, community involvement, and alignment with Visa’s core values of equality, access, and inclusion.
Paris 2024 Team Visa highlights:
- 117 Olympic and Paralympic athletes from 60+ markets, including seven new markets (Austria, Armenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, Honduras)
- Ages 15-48 with highest percentage of women athletes in program history
- 40 sports, including new Paris 2024 sports: Breaking
- 175 medals collectively, with 15 athletes competing in their first Olympics or Paralympic Games
- More than 45 million combined social followers across Team Visa athletes
Current list of U.S. athletes include: Noah Lyles (Athletics – Sprint), Catarina Macario (Football), Caroline Marks (Surfing), Oksana Masters (Para-cycling), Samantha Mewis (Football), Ryan Neiswender (Wheelchair basketball) and Mallory Swanson (Football).
Beyond the U.S., Team Visa Paris 2024 includes decorated athletes like Iga Swiatek (Tennis, Poland), Sky Brown (Skateboarding, Great Britain), Teresa Perales (Para swimming, Spain), Kanoa Igarashi (Surfing, Japan), and first-time Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, Qingyi Liu (Breaking, China), Rasheed Broadbell (Athletics – Sprint/Hurdles, Jamaica), Ardan Galymuly (Goalball, Kazakhstan) and Jonathan White (Para canoe, Great Britain).
Abdulrahman Al-Qurashi, Saudi Arabian Paralympic athlete, said: "I am honored to be part of the Team Visa Summit. Participating in the creator-led content master class, I aim to enhance my storytelling skills, sharing my journey globally. This opportunity empowers me to inspire others, promoting inclusivity in sports and encouraging individuals to believe in their abilities and reach for their dreams."
To learn more about Visa’s support of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, visit Visa’s sponsorship page.