The announcement was made 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 (Megan Rapinoe, Football, USA, PV Sindhu, Badminton, India, 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). View the current Team Visa roster for Tokyo 2020 here.
“I am honored to join Team Visa and share the spirit of The Games with these incredible athletes as we prepare for Tokyo 2020," said Simone Biles, four-time Olympic gold medalist, Gymnastics, USA. “The opportunity to compete on the world stage while representing our country is truly an honor, and the encouragement and support we receive from teammates, family, friends, fans and our partners, like Visa, really means a lot as we pursue our lifelong goals and dreams.”
“The Team Visa Summit is a great opportunity to meet and interact with my peers in advance of The Games,” said Kanoa Igarashi, Surfing, Japan. “In hoping to compete at my first Olympic Games, having a family of athletes in Team Visa will help me feel more at home knowing I have a sense of community by my side.”
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.
To learn more about Visa’s ongoing support of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, visit Visa’s Olympic partnership page.
About Visa Inc.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device, for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.
