Visa Unveils ‘team Visa’ Olympic Athletes

Visa is to sponsor 16 UK athletes in the run-up to London 2012 under its ‘Team
Visa’ Olympic sponsorship campaign, hiring legends Sir Steve Redgrave and Dame
Tanni Grey Thompson as programme mentors.

The ‘Team Visa’ proposition, which has been implemented in around 12
different countries around the world to support Visa’s global sponsorship deal
with the Olympics, will see 16 up and coming Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls
receive special training and technical facilities to help their preparations
both for next year’s Olympics in Beijing and London 2012.

Among the athletes included the programme, all of whom were put forward by
their respective sport’s national governing bodies, include distance runner Mo
Farah and gymnast Beth Tweddle.

The ‘Team Visa’ concept was initially introduced for the Athens 2004
Olympics.

The programme will be reassessed after 18 months although the athletes
stressed that no specific targets had been set in terms of medals or
performances.