Visa To School Olympic Athletes On Finance Management

Visa has announced that it is sponsoring athletes from the Olympic and Paralympic Games and teaching them about financial literacy for when their athletic careers come to an end, according to a report by CNBC.

The summer games in Tokyo are just a few months away, and Visa wants to make sure the athletes are prepared financially as well as physically.

Kate Johnson, Visa’s vice president of global sponsorship marketing, was an American rower who won the silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Johnson started her athletic career at 15, and she was a member of nine U.S. national teams throughout her career. After she finished, she joined Visa in 2013.

“As much as you would like to set yourself up for success post-competition, few athletes think about it,” Johnson said.

Johnson works to help athletes near the end of their careers, as well as athletes nearing retirement, to be financially prepared for a new phase of their lives.

“It’s about going back to the novice mentality and being willing to try things on,” Johnson said. “You can find love in your career, you just have to be willing to start from scratch.”

Visa sponsors over 70 athletes from 30 sports from the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games — from 43 countries.

The courses are on a variety of topics, including digital payments, and how to deal with the Japanese cashless mandate and the country’s payments ecosphere.

There’s also a course on how to build a social media brand in front of the games.

Visa also has the Olympian & Paralympian Business Development Program, which is a one- to two-year program that helps athletes with mentoring, networking, career training and development.

“The opportunity to compete on the world stage while representing our country is truly an honor,” said Simone Biles, who has won Olympic gold four times on the U.S. gymnastics team. “The encouragement and support we receive from teammates, family, friends, fans and our partners, like Visa, really means a lot as we pursue our life-long goals and dreams.”