Paralympic athletes attend Team Visa Summit

A number of Paralympic and Olympic athletes were in San Francisco, USA, this week for a two-day (22-23 September) Team Visa Summit and innovation showcase at the company’s headquarters.

The Summit kicked-off Visa’s year-long programme which supports Olympic and Paralympic athletes as they train for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Amongst the five Paralympic athletes named as part of Team Visa Rio are two Brazilians, swimmer Daniel Dias and visually impaired sprinter Terezinha Guilhermina.

Dias is Brazil’s most successful Paralympian having won 10 Paralympic and 24 world titles, whilst Guilhermina has won eight world and three Paralympic gold medals.

Dias is not the only para-swimmer named in the team, he is joined by Canada’s four-time Paralympian Benoit Huot, a winner of nine Paralympic golds, and Russia’s Olesya Vladykina, a winner of two gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics.

The final Paralympian on the team is the USA’s Alana Nichols who is chasing gold in a third different sport at Rio 2016. In 2008, Nichols won gold in wheelchair basketball and two years later won two gold medals in sit-ski events at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. In Rio 2016 she is aiming to compete in canoe, a sport that will make its Paralympic debut next year.

Pushing the Boundaries: The Intersection of Sports & Technology

As new mobile technologies such as biometrics and wearables advance the payment experience, innovation is also helping Paralympic and Olympic athletes with training and performance monitoring as they prepare for the 2016 Games. Visa is positioned at the intersection of technology and sports, bringing mobile payment innovation to the venues and infrastructure, while sponsoring athletes to achieve their everywhere.

Hopefuls attending the Team Visa Summit learned to use new payment technology that are expected to be implemented at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games including Visa Checkout and Samsung Pay. They also received a preview of future payment technology applications including biometric payment options and wearables.

Visa selects its athletes based on criteria including the athlete’s personal journey to the Olympic and Paralympics Games, athletic achievements, and community involvement.