Following on from IOC’s decision to move the Tokyo Olympics to 2021, financial service Visa has assured its Olympic and Paralympic athlete partners that sponsorships will be extended to accommodate with the growing coronavirus changes.
The commitment from Visa strengthens its commitment to its expansive global sponsorship presence, providing olympic athletes with a degree of stability at a turbulent time.
Chris Curtin, Visa’s chief brand and innovation marketing officer, told The Associated Press: “We elected to stand behind our roster of Team Visa athletes and make sure they knew affirmatively we were planning to do so and that we were going to offer to extend our relationship with them into 2021.
“They’re all dealing with how do they maintain their training schedules, discipline and focus at the same time they’re dealing with what’s happening with their families and their loved ones.
“One thing that we wanted to do as Visa was to take one potential point of ambiguity and maybe concern off their plates, because there should be none.”
The athletes involved with Team Visa were contacted on Friday with the option to extend the partnership and with news arriving today that the Games will be played next year, the agreements will be welcome news to the firm’s 96 athletes across 27 sports.
Olympic gold medalist, Adam Peaty added: “These are unprecedented times for all of us but having Visa’s support makes these times of adversity quite a bit easier.”
Visa will now look towards honouring its extended partnerships by creating new edited promotional videos which will be aired leading up to the Olympic Games’ new launch date.
