SAN FRANCISCO: Visa, the worldwide payment technology partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, has announced its most diverse roster of athletes on Team Visa Tokyo 2020.
Representing 43 countries, the most in Team Visa history, the current roster is comprised of 70+ athletes across 30+ sports, including new additions to The Games: Surfing, Skateboarding and Sport Climbing.
The announcement was made Wednesday at the Team Visa Summit, hosted at the company’s San Francisco Innovation Center. The Summit offers athletes resources on how to improve financial literacy, benefit from digital payments and elevate their personal brand.
“As one of the longest standing partners of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Visa looks forward to Tokyo 2020. Set to be the largest Games yet, Tokyo 2020 will feature 7,000 hours of broadcast programming and three billion minutes of streamed content,” said Chris Curtin, chief brand and innovation marketing officer, Visa.
“Our Team Visa Tokyo 2020 roster reflects The Games themselves: globally diverse, representative of new emerging sports and larger than ever. We are proud to reveal this year’s Team Visa roster and support these athletes as go for Gold in Tokyo.”
The Team Visa Tokyo 2020 roster includes decorated Olympians (Simone Biles, Gymnastics, USA, Katie Ledecky, Swimming, USA, Daniel Dias, Para Swimming, Brazil and Yelyzaveta Mereshko, Para Swimming, Ukraine), World Champions (PV Sindhu, Badminton, India; Megan Rapinoe, Football, USA; Mariana Pajón, BMX, Colombia; and Oksana Masters, Para Cycling, USA) and 16 first-time Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls (Kanoa Igarashi, Surfing, Japan; and Poppy Starr Olsen, Skateboarding, Australia; and Sean McColl, Sport Climbing, Canada; among others).
To view the current Team Visa roster for Tokyo 2020, click here…
Team Visa Tokyo 2020
Founded in 2000, Team Visa has championed nearly 500 athletes. Each has been selected based on athletic achievements, character and personal journey, and are representative of many of Visa’s brand values and priorities, including:
Gender Equality: Since the beginning of Team Visa, on average 54% of Team Visa have been women, including the 41 women athletes for Tokyo 2020, underscoring Visa’s efforts to empower more women athletes and support the development of women’s sports.
Social Impact: In addition to excelling in their sport, many Team Visa athletes advocate for organizations that help to positively impact their local communities. Alison Cerutti (Beach Volleyball, Brazil) has an organization in Brazil that helps give underserved children in his community access to sports, health services and more. Erick Barrondo (Athletics, Guatemala) has demonstrated a similar dedication to helping youth through a charitable race walk he and his wife started to benefit impoverished children in Guatemala.
Small Business: Visa is a true advocate for the 30 million small businesses in the U.S. and extends that commitment to its Team Visa athletes. From 19-year-old Poppy Starr Olsen (Skateboarding, Australia), an artist and jewelry maker who has leveraged her business to fund her athletic career, to Megan Rapinoe (Football, USA), whose on-field passion is matched by a commitment to growing her purposeful fashion company, Visa is dedicated to supporting athletes in their businesses endeavors.
