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PARIS, November 08, 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 addition 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,” said 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 participated 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 eight new markets (Austria, Armenia, Belgium, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, Honduras)
- Ages 15-48 with highest percentage of women athletes in program history
- 40 sports, including new Paris 2024 sport: Breaking
- 175 medals collectively, with 15 athletes competing in their first Olympic or Paralympic Games
- More than 45 million combined social followers across Team Visa athletes
Current list of U.S. athletes includes: 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).
“Being on Team Visa is an honor. Visa was instrumental in helping me navigate the obstacles of Tokyo 2020 and I am happy I have their support on the road to Paris 2024,” said Noah Lyles. “Being with so many inspiring athletes at the Team Visa Summit is cool enough, but having a partner like Visa bring in game changing creators to help me elevate my own personal brand beyond sport and connect better with fans worldwide makes it even more energizing.”
To learn more about Visa’s support of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, visit Visa’s sponsorship page.
About Visa Inc.
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating payments transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.
Associated Press Content Services/Visa
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Paris, France - 31 October & 01 November 2023
1. TEAM VISA LOGO
2. ATHLETES ATTENDING VISA SUMMIT CONTENT WORKSHOP
3. VARIOUS OF FRANK COOPER SPEAKING AT VISA SUMMIT CONTENT WORKSHOP
4. SOUNDBITE (English) FRANK COOPER III, VISA CHIEF MARKETING MANAGER
“We're here though specifically because the team visa summit is where we actually bring together our team visa athletes so they can get to understand what Visa is about. What we do, what we stand for, and how they can connect with us and become ambassadors for us. But also for us to learn about how we can contribute to their overall sense of well-being, of their financial literacy, and helping to advance their careers.”
5. FRANK COOPER SPEAKING AT TEAM VISA SUMMIT CONTENT WORKSHOP
6. SOUNDBITE (English) FRANK COOPER III, VISA CHIEF MARKETING MANAGER
“So the team Visa summit is where we gather together, the team visa athletes. This has been an incredible program. We've had over 600 team visa athletes over the course of this program. We currently have about 120 active athletes and there's this incredible exchange that happens. All the team visa athletes, they get financial support from us. We help give them financial guidance. We help train them. We're here in Paris going to help train them. And in terms of how to become a better creator. It's a lot that we give to them, but they get back to us too. They become our ambassadors. They become voices for us out in the marketplace and it's that kind of reciprocity that makes us work on both sides.”
7. ATHLETES AND INFLUENCERS LISTENING
8. FRANK COOPER SPEAKING AT VISA SUMMIT CONTENT WORKSHOP SAYING:
“Has anyone heard the phrase kind of game, recognized game? You've heard that phrase before? You know what it means? Does anyone know what it means? What it means is that you recognize the excellence in someone else. You see it. And what's beautiful about that is that it doesn't have to be the excellence of somebody in the same sport.”
9. ATHLETES AND INFLUENCERS CLAPPING
10. WIDE OF ANDREA FAIRCHILD SPEAKING AT TEAM VISA SUMMIT CONTENT WORKSHOP
11. SOUNDBITE (English) ANDREA FAIRCHILD, VISA SVP GLOBAL SPONSORSHIP STRATEGY
“We have over 70 incredible athletes. We've split you into two groups. Again, there's more people for you to meet as you go, representing over 46 different countries from every corner of the world. To me, that that just blows me away, that we have that opportunity to come together. We've been doing the team visa Summit again for years, but this is the first time we've hosted the Team Visa summit in the host city.”
11 AUDIENCE MEMBER NODDING
12. SOUNDBITE (English) ANDREA FAIRCHILD, VISA SVP GLOBAL SPONSORSHIP STRATEGY
“We're preparing for Paris 2024, Olympic and Paralympic Games. We've brought our Team Visa athletes together to really, you know, showcase what being a part of Team Visa family is all about and giving them the tools that they need as they are pursuing their journeys of Olympic greatness. We're really focused on, you know, being a masterclass in in the creative culture for them, social media and everything that's going to drive their brands and what they're talking about on the playing field. We're here to help that along it.”
13. VARIOUS NOAH LYLES PLAYING BASKETBALL AT VISA PARIS SUMMIT
14. SOUNDBITE (English) NOAH LYLES, UNITED STATES, SPRINTER
“I'm most excited to get some revenge. Tokyo didn’t go how I wanted. Instead some people beat me who weren't supposed to. But this year, I'm going to take care of business in all of it.”
15. WIDE OF ATHLETES PLAYING ON BASKETBALL COURT
16. VARIOUS OF ADAM PEATY WITH ATHLETES ATTENDING VISA PARIS SUMMIT
17. SOUNDBITE (English) ADAM PEATY, GREAT BRITAIN, SWIMMING
“Their whole slogan is achieving the impossible so for me, I have some things ahead of me now that I’m gonna make a decision every single day to achieve the impossible so that really exciteds me. And having people around me, having partners who support me, living that dream every single day for really and genuinely, but also at the same time staying healthy and happy in the sport. So I've been doing this a long time and I've been to two Olympic Games but I think Paris is going to be a very special one.”
18. VARIOUS OF BIRGIT SKARSTEIN ATTENDING VISA PARIS SUMMIT
19. SOUNDBITE (English) BIRGIT SKARSTEIN, NORWAY, PARA CANOE
“So what Visa does matters. When they choose to lift gender equality, when they choose to lift the Olympic and Paralympic movement together, when they choose the values that I feel I can really stand for. That makes a difference because they're exposed to the whole world.”
20. VARIOUS OF CHILD AND ATHLETE DRAWING
21. VARIOUS OF NOAH LYLES HELPING A CHILD WITH MURAL PAINTING
22. A CHILD FINISHING MURAL PAINTING WITH HER NAME OLIVIA
23. BREAK DANCER SHIGEYUKI NAKARAI DANCING AT LOCAL PARIS GYMNASIUM
24. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) RAISSA ROCHA MACHADO, BRAZIL, PARA JAVELIN
“I have no words to describe the feeling and emotion I have right now at this moment of being part of the Visa team. It's very important to me be on the team, and not just for me, but also for Brazilian parasport to be represented and I hope it will be represented very well.”
25. VARIOUS OF ANDREA FAIRCHILD LAUGHING AT TEAM VISA SUMMIT
26. BREAK DANCER SHIGEYUKI NAKARAI DANCING AT TEAM VISA SUMMIT
27. SOUNDBITE (English) SHIGEYUKI NAKARAI, JAPAN, BREAKING
“People will start knowing about breaking in Paris 2024 and I hope they will start dancing.”
28. VARIOUS OF ATHLETES DANCING AT TEAM VISA SUMMIT NIGHT PARTY
15 November 2023
