• Meet Team Visa



    Visa sponsors Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls from across the world as they prepare to reach their goals of competing at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. We encourage their talent, determination and fearlessness because we are aware that competing for their country on the world stage represents an absolute victory and lifelong dream fulfilment.

Meet Team Visa

Sky Brown/ skateboarding / Great Britain

Sky is an Anglo-Japanese skateboarder, who competes for Great Britain. She is the youngest professional skateboarder in the world and certainly one of the most high-profile athletes at Tokyo 2020, due to her age. Even though she is raised by parents who are skateboarders, Brown does not have a skateboarding coach. Instead, she learns tricks from online videos. The skateboard sensation will be the youngest British Olympian of all time, and one of the youngest competitors in Tokyo.

Dmitriy Balandin/ swimming/ Kazakhstan

At the age of 21, Balandin became Kazakhstan’s first ever Olympic swimming medallist when he won gold in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Currently, Balandin holds two Kazakh records in the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke and set a historic milestone for his nation by striking the breaststroke triple at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon in South Korea.

Elvira Herman/ sprint hurdles/ Belarus

Elvira Herman is a Belarusian athlete specialising in the sprint hurdles. She won the gold medal at the 2018 European Championships. At the 2018 European Athletics Golden Tracks awards in Lausanne, Elvira received the award as Europe's female rising star. She won the silver medal in the team event at the 2019 European Games held in Minsk in Belarus. Becoming a Visa Team athlete, she said that she does not want to focus on victories and places, but to do as much as possible to do her best.

Milica Mandić/ taekwondo/ Serbia

Twenty-year-old Milica Mandić entered sports history by winning the only gold for Serbia at the Olympic Games in London in 2012. She won a bronze medal in the middleweight category at the 2011 World Taekwondo Championships, silver medal at the 2012 European Taekwondo Championships and at 2017 World Taekwondo Championships she won gold medal. Together with her trainer Dragan Jović, Milica was included in the Taekwondo Hall of Fame at the 2013 Ceremony in Las Vegas, due to great contribution to the sport in Serbia.

Daria Bilodid/ judo/ Ukraine

Daria Bilodid followed her father steps and became the youngest Ukrainian judoka. She became 2019 World Champion in Tokyo and won her first title in Baku as youngest ever gold medallist. Bilodid became European Senior Champion in 2017 and won European Games gold in Minsk and GS Abu Dhabi in 2019. Bilodid became World Cadet Champion in Sarajevo in 2015 and won the 2018 Junior world title in Nassau. The only judoka to take both the Cadet, Junior and Senior European title in one year.

Olha Kharlan/ fencing/ Ukraine

Olha is a Ukrainian dancer and a sabre fencer. Her first interest as a teenager was dancing, but the lessons were too expensive for her parents at that time. When she was 10, her godfather, a sabre coach, suggested to teach her fencing, where the lessons were free. And that is how it all began. Now she holds a bronze medal from both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics and is a four-time World champion and five-time European champion. Olha was named athlete of the year at the 2009 Ukrainian Heroes of Sports Year awards.

Yelyzaveta Mereshko/ Paralympic swimming/ Ukraine

“My mother took me swimming so that I could improve my health. Then I was invited to take part in children's tournaments, where I become infected with the desire to compete.“ This is how Yelyzaveta Mereshko, a Ukrainian Paralympic swimmer, began her successful sports career. In 2015, she set the world record for the S6 100 metres freestyle event. She won four gold medals and a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. Also, she was named among the six best Ukrainian athletes of 2018. “The recipe for success is 5% talent and 95% hard work“, is her sporting motto.

Team Visa

 

Team Visa athletes span the globe

Visa sponsors athletes from all over the world through its Team Visa program. Team Visa athletes have competed in the Olympic and Paralympic Games since 2000 and 2002 respectively. Explore the global reach of the athletes representing Team Visa at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 in the map below.

Map of the world highlighting the markets from where Team Visa athletes hail to participate.
More than 90+ athletes, 52 countries/regions and 30+ sports are going to participate.

Team Visa roster

Team Visa has championed nearly 500 athletes since being founded in 2000. Athletes are selected based on athletic achievements, character and personal journey, and represent many of Visa’s brand values and priorities, including gender equality, social impact and small business.

Gustavo Fernandez
Wheelchair Tennis | Argentina

Delfina Merino
Field Hockey | Argentina

Paula Pareto
Judo | Argentina

Ellie Carpenter
Football | Australia

Poppy Starr Olsen
Skateboarding | Australia

Elvira Herman
Athletics - Hurdles | Belarus

Alison Cerutti
Beach Volleyball | Brazil

Daniel Dias
Para swimming | Brazil

Gabriel Medina
Surfing | Brazil

Ivet Lalova
Athletics | Bulgaria

Andre De Grasse
Athletics - Sprints | Canada

Sean McColl
Sport Climbing | Canada

Aurélie Rivard
Para swimming | Canada

Christine Sinclair
Football | Canada

Chen Aisen
Diving | China Mainland

Chen Long
Badminton | China Mainland

Ma Long
Table Tennis | China Mainland

Xiao Ruoteng
Gymnastics | China Mainland

Shi Tingmao
Diving | China Mainland

Mariana Pajon
BMX - Racing | Colombia

Kenneth Tencio
BMX - Freestyle | Costa Rica

Pernille Bulme
Swimming | Denmark

Luguelin Santos
Athletics - Sprints | Dom. Republic

Daniel Alvarez
Athletics | Ecuador

Lizzie Armanto
Skateboarding | Finland

Steven Da Costa
Karate | France

Florian Wellbrock
Swimming | Germany

Lucy Bronze
Football | Great Britain

Sky Brown
Skateboarding | Great Britain

Fran Kirby
Football | Great Britain

Nikita Parris
Football | Great Britain

Adam Peaty
Swimming | Great Britain

Kim Little
Football | Great Britain (Scotland)

Eleftherios Petrounias
Gymnastics | Greece

Katerina Stefanidi
Athletics | Greece

Erick Barrondo
Athletics - Race Walking | Guatemala

Cheung Ka-Long
Fencing | Hong Kong

PV Sindhu
Badminton | India

Eko Yuli Irawan
Weightlifting | Indonesia

Gary O'Donovan
Rowing | Ireland

Paul O'Donovan
Rowing | Ireland

Sagi Muki
Judo | Israel

Gergorio Paltrinieri
Swimming | Italy

Bebe Vio
Para fencing | Italy

Shelly-Ann Frasier-Pryce
Athletics - Sprints | Jamaica

Omar McLeod
Athletics | Jamaica

Kanoa Igarashi
Surfing | Japan

Rim Nakamura
BMX | Japan

Monika Seryu
Para canoe | Japan

Daiya Seto
Swimming | Japan

Kanako Watanabe
Swimming | Japan

Hajimu Ashida
Para athletics | Japan

Ritsu Doan
Football | Japan

Nozomi Okuhara
Badminton | Japan

Ayumu Saito
Fencing & Modern Pentathlon | Japan

Dmitriy Baladin
Swimming | Kazakhstan

David Rudisha
Athletics | Kenya

Henry Wanyoike
Para Athletics | Kenya

Na, Ah-reum
Cycling - Road | Korea

Oh, Sang-uk
Fencing | Korea

Nur Dhabitah Sabri
Diving | Malaysia

Maria Espinoza
Taekwondo | Mexico

Munkhbat Urantsetseg
Judo | Mongolia

Soufiane El Bakkali
Athletics - Steeplechase | Morocco

Dafne Schippers
Athletics | Netherlands

Shanice van de Sanden
Football | Netherlands

Dame Valerie Adams
Athletics - Shot Put | New Zealand

Divine Oduduru
Athletics - Sprints | Nigeria

Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal
Athletics | Norway

Alonso Edward
Athletics - Sprints | Panama

Stefano Peschiera
Sailing | Peru

Carlos Yulo
Gymnastics | Philippines

Amelia Brodka
Skateboarding | Poland

Marcin Dzieński
Sport Climbing | Poland

Katarzyna Kozikowska
Para canoe | Poland

Adriana Díaz
Table Tennis | Puerto Rico

Abdullah Abkar Mohammed
Athletics - Sprints | Saudi Arabia

Milica Mandić
Taekwondo | Serbia

Quah Ting Wen
Swimming | Singapore

Tatjana Schoenmaker
Swimming | South Africa

Akani Simbine
Athletics - Sprints | South Africa

Saul Craviotto
Canoe / Kayak | Spain

Teresa Perales
Para swimming | Spain

Kosovare Asllani
Football | Sweden

Wen Tzu-yun
Karate | Taiwan

Ratchanok Intanon
Badminton | Thailand

Ecem Güzel
Sailing | Turkey

Daria Bilodid
Judo | Ukraine

Olga Kharlan
Fencing | Ukraine

Yelyzaveta Mereshko
Para swimming | Ukraine

Simone Biles
Gymnastics | USA

Kate Courtney
Cycling | USA

Katie Ledecky
Swimming | USA

Noah Lyles
Athletics - Sprints | USA

Oksana Masters
Para cycling | USA

Carissa Moore
Surfing | USA

Megan Rapinoe
Football | USA