P&G Puts Athletes Who Lead with Love Center Stage at Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Celebrating Their Efforts and Inspiring Positive Action in Others

August 05, 2021 at 14:49 PM EDT

Olympic Gold Medalist Nastia Liukin and Olympic Silver Medalist Gus Kenworthy co-host virtual panel discussion with P&G Athletes for Good Fund Grant recipients and Olympians who have continued to lead with love at Tokyo 2020
Athletes Mariah Duran, Alice Dearing, Brian Afanador and Erica Sullivan share the personal experiences that inspired them to serve their communities
P&G recognizes athletes who Lead with Love at Tokyo 2020 and extends grant donations to their charities of choice

As an Olympic sponsor for the past 10 years, Procter & Gamble’s (NYSE: PG) focus is on celebrating and supporting the unique journeys athletes take on the road to their Olympic dreams, including the causes they champion and the work they do to drive positive change in their communities. In the lead up to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, P&G was inspired by the selfless actions of Olympic and Paralympic athletes around the world who stepped up and served others. This led P&G to create the Athletes for Good Fund in partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Its purpose is to honor and fuel the work of Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls who lend their time, talent, and resources to charitable causes in the areas of Community Impact, Equality & Inclusion, and Environmental Sustainability. For Tokyo 2020, Athletes for Good Fund provided more than $500,000 in grants to help fuel the efforts of the recipients’ charities of choice.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210805005996/en/

Athletes Mariah Duran, Alice Dearing, Brian Afanador and Erica Sullivan share their personal experiences that inspired them to serve their communities during a panel discussion hosted by P&G. (Photo: Business Wire)

Today, during a virtual panel discussion dubbed “Champions and the Causes They Champion,” co-hosts Olympic Gold Medalist Nastia Liukin (USA, Gymnastics Legend) and Olympic Silver Medalist Gus Kenworthy (Great Britain, Freestyle Skiing) were joined by four athletes who are not only incredible competitors, but also display compassion, humanity, and goodness on and off the field of play. Through their inspiring stories, we learned how each panelist found motivation based on their personal experiences, along with their passion to get involved to create positive change within their communities. Panelists included:

Mariah Duran*, USA, Skateboarding: Having experienced firsthand the intimidation of competing in a male-dominated sport with few female mentors, Mariah serves as a role model, mentor, and advocate for young girls in skate. Through her work with Skate Like A Girl, she encourages the next generation of girls to continue pursuing their passion.
Alice Dearing*, Great Britain, Swimming: As the first Black woman to swim for Team Great Britain at any Olympic Games, Alice has experienced the barriers within the sport of swimming that are faced among people of color. Taking matters into her own hands, Alice is a lead ambassador for the Black Swimming Association (BSA), focusing on increasing participation and changing attitudes to attract more Black people to understand the importance of learning to swim.
Brian Afanador*, Puerto Rico, Table Tennis: After Hurricane Maria left a devastating effect on Puerto Rico, Brian used his platform as an Olympic athlete to expand awareness to help his community. In collaboration with #Yonomequito Foundation, he has helped to rebuild homes and provide necessities, like food, fresh water, and emergency services to local families in need.
Erica Sullivan, USA, Swimming: As an openly gay, Asian American swimmer, Erica has stepped up to advocate for intersectional equality in sport. During Tokyo 2020, she used her press conference as an opportunity to bring awareness to minority groups, including the LGBTQ+ community.

“The spirit of the Olympic Games has the power to lift us up and unite us, and these incredible athletes have all taken that spirit beyond the Olympic and Paralympic Movement, and into their communities with a goal of creating positive change,” said host Nastia Liukin. “It’s inspiring to see organizations, like P&G, continuing to celebrate athletes both on and off the field, supporting their efforts to fuel good in communities so others will be inspired to do the same.”

“For me, being an Olympian is much more than just excelling at my sport; it’s also about using my platform to help the next generation of women skaters coming up reach their potential and dream big,” Mariah Duran shared. “I would not be where I am today without the community and experiences I got at Skate Like A Girl. This organization is a prominent voice for gender equality and inclusion in skateboarding and their events, camps and after school programs help make an unreal scenario, real. I am so appreciative of P&G and Athletes for Good for supporting them.”

You can view the full panel conversation here.

*Athletes for Good Fund Grant recipient

Spotlighting Those Who Lead with Love During Tokyo 2020

Throughout Tokyo 2020, P&G took its commitment to supporting athletes a step further by donating an additional two grants to the chosen charities of athletes who used their Olympic Games platform to serve and support others in Tokyo. Along with Erica Sullivan, P&G extended a donation to Pita Taufatofua (Tonga, Taekwondo), who inspired people everywhere with his generosity towards the athlete community on the ground in Tokyo. The three-time Olympian, who has 15 years of volunteer experience in the youth mental health space, publicly recognized the immense amount of pressure that athletes are put under when competing at an elite level and invited athletes to reach out to him for counseling and advice. His call to action resulted in hundreds of exchanges with athletes, both via social media and in-person at Tokyo 2020. For his efforts to serve as a sounding board for athletes and provide an uplifting voice of support, P&G is proud to recognize that the good that Pita does, is what truly makes him great.

The Athletes for Good Fund and Tokyo 2020 athlete grant donations are helping P&G to achieve its goal of reaching 2,021 Acts of Good in 2021 to support its Lead with Love campaign.

You can learn more about P&G’s Lead with Love commitment here: https://us.pg.com/lead-with-love/.

About P&G’s 2,021 Acts of Good in 2021

At P&G, supporting our communities, fostering equality and inclusion, and protecting the planet is embedded in how we do business. We believe we have a responsibility to help improve everyday life — through the products we create and the positive impact our brands and Company can have. Under our Lead with Love campaign, P&G and its brands have committed to 2,021 acts of good this year.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.pg.com/ for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.