Visa Welcomes New Zealand Athletes To Team Visa Ahead Of Olympic And Paralympic Games Paris 2024

Today, Visa (NYSE: V), the Worldwide Payment Technology Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, announced the two New Zealand athletes joining Team Visa for Paris 2024.

Up-and-coming middle-long distance runner Sam Tanner and footballer Claudia Bunge will be part of the largest group of Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls in the Team Visa program's history and the most diverse. Globally Team Visa includes athletes representing more than 60 markets and 40 sports including new addition Breaking.

Recently Team Visa athletes from around the world, including New Zealand’s Sam Tanner, attended the 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 turn fans and followers into a community by sharing their sporting and personal stories, and generate commerce through content creation,” said Natalie Lockwood, Head of Marketing, Visa Australia & New Zealand. “Through Team Visa, we’re helping our athletes develop these skills as creators and realise the immense opportunities to reach, engage and inspire people all over 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 incentivise youth sports participation.

“To have the support of Visa on the journey to Paris 2024 is incredible,” said Sam Tanner. “Getting immersed in the world of creators at the Team Visa Summit was a game-changing experience for me. Not only did I get to learn how to build my own personal brand off the track and create new connections with fans, but I was able to do that surrounded by an amazing group of athletes who share my passion and goals.”

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
• Globally Team Visa Paris 2024 also includes Caroline Marks (Surfing, US), Ryan Neiswender (Wheelchair basketball, US), 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).

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.

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