Anyone who has competed in sports, at any level, knows they’re bigger than any given event. Sports can connect and uplift, challenge and inspire. They can bring out the best in us — as individuals and teams.
“I moved to Austin about a year ago and one of the communities I have built here is through sports,” says Runga Abraham, who joined Visa as senior manager of Acceptance Solutions and immediately joined the employee soccer club. “I really do see sport as a way to unite people.”
Runga is one of the many Visa employees among 11,000 total torchbearers this summer, carrying the flame that will ultimately light the Olympic cauldron at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony.
Embodying the spirit of the Games
“This is the craziest thing that’s probably ever happened to me,” said Courtney Mock, technical program manager at Visa in Highlands Ranch. “I keep telling people it’s going to be one of my Two Truths and a Lie for the rest of my life. That I was part of the [Olympic Games Paris 2024].”
But not just anyone gets the honor of taking part in the relay.
“The challenge was to write an essay about why you should run with the [Olympic] torch, and how you have brought in your social responsibility or affiliation with sport as part of the Paris Games,” said Mary Taylor, senior director of North America Emerging Payment Products.
Visa’s torchbearers were selected based on their embodiment of at least one of the core tenets of Paris 2024: sport, community, and “the collective,” or their effort to promote a more inclusive, sustainable and fair society.
For Mary, that meant supporting the victims of the Maui fires through Visa’s employee volunteer program. For Runga, who hails from Tanzania, it was volunteering to teach youth soccer in his adopted country. For Courtney, sport has been part of her family legacy for generations.
“My dad is a golf professional, and I grew up playing basketball and golf at a pretty competitive level. Those formative experiences taught me confidence, hard work and teamwork and just how to come back from disappointment,” she said. “It's just a cool full-circle moment, putting so much of my youth into athletics and then being able to represent that and the legacy of my family.”
For Brendan Grant, vice president of global consumer credit and commerce enabler programs at Visa, it has meant volunteering to play soccer and football with people who are incarcerated.
“Sport really helps to grow the community. It helps them learn a lot more interactions and human skills that they can hopefully have when they come back out into the real world,” said Brendan.
Run of show
The Olympic torch was lit at Mount Olympus in April, about 100 days before the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. The flame has since traveled across the Mediterranean and all around France, with each torchbearer carrying the flame for 200 meters, until it reaches its final destination in Paris on July 26. The Visa torchbearers will get their chance to carry the torch on the outskirts of Paris closer to that date.
“It’s probably the shortest, but most important run I’ll ever do in my life,” says Brendan.
For many of the torchbearers, the approximately 2-minute run is not a great distance, but will be an unforgettable experience.
“Holding the torch for me is something I never imagined I would be able to do. The way it happened, being very new at Visa and being able to get this opportunity through Visa. It is beyond a dream come true,” said Runga.
The torch bearers represent the diversity of our global society: women and men, national and local public figures, including some Olympians and citizens selected from among the public.
“I'm rooting for everyone,” said Mary. “I'm really hopeful that the Olympic Games this year are an opportunity to demonstrate how we can have unity in a time of tragedy and challenges in the world. To me, seeing everybody come forward and bring their best performance and their best engagement in the Olympic spirit, that would be pretty awesome.”