2019 LA84 Foundation Summit
Sloane Stephens, 6 WTA Titles, 2017 US Women's Open Champion, Philanthropist
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Mia Hamm, Co-Owner - AFC, 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, 2x FIFA World Cup Champion
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Tom Farrey, Executive Director, Sports & Society Program, Aspen Institute
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Kathy Schloessman, President & CEO, Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission
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Photos courtesy of LA84 Foundation
At the 2019 LA84 Summit earlier this month, we had an opportunity to speak with Olympians, professional athletes, and industry experts in youth sports to hear about drives their commitment to the cause. We had incredible conversations with:
1. Why is athlete activism important to you? Is there a moment that you can point to as your motivation for being involved in this space?
Sloane Stephens (SS): It’s important to me to use my platform to give back to the local communities. Tennis has given me so much in life – it’s allowed me to meet so many interesting people and travel to amazing places all over the world, all while playing the sport that I love. All of this has only possible because other people gave me opportunities to succeed. Everything in life starts with an opportunity.
My life story is what motivated me to create my foundation. It’s based in Compton, and serves kids in my community, giving them some of these opportunities that I was fortunate enough to receive growing up.
Mia Hamm (MH): We’re more than just athletes, we’re members of the society as well. I didn’t get where I am by myself. A lot of people – whether it was my family, friends and complete strangers, impacted my life. I feel like when we’re given an opportunity, it’s an obligation for all of us to create more opportunities to be active in society moving forward.
Kyle Martino (KM): During my playing career, I always enjoyed the connection to the community through the teams I played with. Whether it was after-school programs, STEM or a children’s hospital, I knew sports were a powerful vehicle to impact kids. When the US Men’s National Team failed to qualify for the World Cup, I saw the accountability and discourse wasn’t about us shirking responsibility; it was about opening up the game to as many kids as possible in this country. That was never a part of the dialogue between federation leadership as it relates to our direction as a soccer nation, so I felt a need to push the conversation in that direction.
I was blown away by the amount of people working on solutions for this, yet disappointed that it wasn’t a priority of the federation. But I quickly realized that even if the federation could solve all of the problems, it’s up to us to roll up our sleeves to really make an impact. I wouldn’t have realized all of this without deconstructing the landscape in my run for US Soccer President, so I’ll never be able to go back to seeing it the way I had before.
Tom Farrey (TF): Project Play and the shift in my career came from an organic place in my life. I’ve been a journalist since I was 17-years-old; all I wanted to do was dig out stories and tell them. When I wrote my book in 2008, it became clear to me that we have a youth sports system that is dysfunctional at best, and broken at worst. The consequence of that is placed on public health and community vitality. I felt like I knew something, and everyone asked me to do something about it – to create a solution. The next thing I know, I had a conversation with my boss at ESPN, and I asked to focus more of my time on the Aspen Institute and Project Play.
Kathy Schloessman (KS): We host sporting events all the time, all over the country. When you hear someone saying, “This is the best day of my life”, or re-telling a story from an event, it makes you realize how important these events are. We put on hundreds of events, so when you hear from participants about the impact it had on them, it makes us realize we’re making a difference.
Ronit Larone (RL): Athlete activism is important to me, and us, because our athletes are real people. They’re people who come from all walks of life. The way the players engage with the community is authentic and inspirational. You can see the affect it has in so many ways, and how it motivates others to get involved as well. With Huddle for 100, we’re asking everyone to come out side-by-side to donate time and minutes to important causes. The players are there, not because they’re supposed to be, but because they want to be. Many have their own foundations or lend their voices to existing organizations. Their dedication and presence makes an enormous impact in local communities.
Huddle for 100 is tied directly to our 100th season, and is an opportunity for us to not only highlight the history of the game, but to amplify the NFL’s Social Responsibility platform as well. From this perspective, along with our own responsibility to serve communities, we’re focused on telling these stories from around the country. And the players have been a part of it all. We have a filmmaker who has participated in all of our national Huddle events, and has done documentary work with the players to highlight those being impacted by this initiative. As the players share why it’s so important to them to give back to the communities in which they play and live, we get to meet some of the people effected by the Huddles and see one of the many positive effects athlete activism has when people get to meet and talk to the players and hear of their own personal experiences.
2. Which athlete did you most look up to as you grew up and/or played sports?
SS: As a black athlete, and more specifically a tennis player, I looked up to Venus and Serena Williams. I watched them on TV every chance I got and they’re obviously inspirational athletes in my eyes.
MH: Growing up, I always admired was my older brother. I followed him around and tried to emulate everything he did. As I watched more sports on TV, most of my athletic female role models played sports that I didn’t play, like Chris Evert and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. What’s great about today’s world is that you can watch women on TV that play your sport.
KM: Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders were some of my role models. I had a lot of role models because I saw so many different ways that you can express yourself and engage in athletics. I was a multi-sport athlete through high-school, so I gravitated towards athletes who were able to excel across multiple sports.
TF: I looked up to George Gervin because of his creativity and love of game which was so evident. He was the athlete that made you fall in love with what the human body can do.
KS: One of my role models now in my professional capacity is Renata Simril. She’s passionate about her work in the community and she’s elevating LA84 to greater heights.
3. If you had a crystal ball, what do you envision being the most pressing issue over the next 3-5 in this space?
SS: I’d encourage all athletes to focus on doing one thing. We have a voice and we have a platform -- you don’t need to have your own foundation, but it’s important to do one thing in the community to make it a better place. If we as athletes all focus on doing just one thing through our respective sport, we’ll make a positive impact.
MH: From our foundation’s perspective, we’re always trying to impact more individuals. I know for us, if we’re able to cast a little bit wider net, we’re able to change more people’s lives. We’ve done marrow drives that have been successful in finding donor matches, which has literally saved lives.
In regards to philanthropy, there are so many great causes out there. For a lot of athletes, it’s personal as it ties back to some experience they’ve had in their life. This enables you to invest more time and energy because it impacts you.
KM: Keeping the appetite and excitement for sports as a social justice instrument alive. It’s pressing and important, and it’s at the forefront of people’s minds. I feel like we miss the moment to tell people this isn’t a quick fix solution – it will take constant focus and energy to ensure that the landscape we gain back isn’t like a tide that comes back in.
TF: The key question is whether policies will be introduced that can drive systems-level change. Can we do what Norway did: make a statement that every child, regardless of zip code or ability, deserves to have a sport experience? Can we start to treat sport like a must-have rather than a nice to have, and if so, what policies will back this up? We know that Title IX opened up the door for millions of girls to be introduced to a sport experience. So for me, the question is this: What are the policies that will be introduced for children in low-income communities to make sport a truly accessible and sustainable experience?
KS: For Los Angeles, it’s homelessness. From an experiential standpoint, I’m in the business of bringing major events to LA. Homelessness is a major issue in our city that we need to address as a collective good. For us at the commission, we can play a large role in helping make sure that the legacy component of all of these large events is impactful and reaches a lot of people.
RL: There are a lot of stories to tell around sustainable community involvement as we look towards the future. I’m excited to see the holistic impact made throughout NFL 100. We’ll review our programs, like Huddle for 100, and determine how to apply those learnings towards whatever is next. I’m excited about the possibilities. If we can surpass 100MM minutes by Super Bowl 54, that will be a huge milestone and set us up for the future. We’ve raised the bar every year from a community and content perspective, so we have to continue elevating our work and telling these positive stories with the goal of inspiring even more change.
3. Why is it important to support organizations like LA84 and what does the #PlayForAll movement mean to you?
SS: It’s critical to support local organizations that are doing important work in the community. It’s also imperative to get kids active and interested in sports to learn the necessary skills that help them become a better human.
MH: First of all, LA is our home. LA84 is committed to ensuring equal access and participation to every child in this community, because we all know the important life skills that can be gained through playing sports. Kids need to be kids; they need to play and enjoy their experiences, no matter what walk of life they come from. LA84 is playing a crucial role in bringing this to fruition.
KM: When you think of the Olympics as a representation of elite athletes – of patriotism and pride - as well as the celebration of multi-sport, I think there are few groups better at telling a sports story centered around amateurs. They only have every four years to showcase their talents to the world. Because many Olympians don’t have a career in professional sports that’s seen on TV, they double as doctors or baristas at Starbucks in their off-time. The Olympics are a celebration of diversity; any organization born out of one of the biggest and best global events is a spectacular one with a great legacy of doing impactful work in the community.
TF: It’s important to support organizations like LA84 because they understand sports and the value they can provide to communities. They help address these larger issues that far transcend sports.
KS: On the macro-level, LA84 is such a great example for all of the events that we’re bringing to the city. The 1984 Olympics were a major event that came to town, left a surplus of funds, and created a legacy that has lived on since that time. It’s a perfect example of how to create a sustainable organization that leaves a long-lasting impact. They’re a great model for all these events that are coming to LA; it can’t just be a program that is created out of thin air that may sound nice, it also has to have legs. LA84 has legs, and has shown that community events can be run in a way that impacts people over the long-haul.
RL: Speaking on behalf of my social responsibility colleagues at the NFL, our mission is 100% aligned with LA84. It was important for us to be involved in order to share what we’re doing to impact communities, like LA, with Huddle for 100. We want to ensure that this community is part of our platform and share something great that is working for us, in hopes that it can spur additional change here in Los Angeles and other cities. We also work here, live here, and it’s our community, so it’s incredibly important to support organizations such as LA84.
- Sloane Stephens, 6 WTA Titles, 2017 US Women's Open Champion, Philanthropist
- Mia Hamm, Co-Owner - AFC, 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, 2x FIFA World Cup Champion
- Tom Farrey, Executive Director, Sports & Society Program, Aspen Institute
- Kathy Schloessman, President & CEO, Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission
- Kyle Martino, NBC Sports Analyst, Chair of Street Soccer USA, Over Under Initiative
- Ronit Larone, Vice President, Content & Marketing Integration at National Football League
1. Why is athlete activism important to you? Is there a moment that you can point to as your motivation for being involved in this space?
Sloane Stephens (SS): It’s important to me to use my platform to give back to the local communities. Tennis has given me so much in life – it’s allowed me to meet so many interesting people and travel to amazing places all over the world, all while playing the sport that I love. All of this has only possible because other people gave me opportunities to succeed. Everything in life starts with an opportunity.
My life story is what motivated me to create my foundation. It’s based in Compton, and serves kids in my community, giving them some of these opportunities that I was fortunate enough to receive growing up.
Mia Hamm (MH): We’re more than just athletes, we’re members of the society as well. I didn’t get where I am by myself. A lot of people – whether it was my family, friends and complete strangers, impacted my life. I feel like when we’re given an opportunity, it’s an obligation for all of us to create more opportunities to be active in society moving forward.
Kyle Martino (KM): During my playing career, I always enjoyed the connection to the community through the teams I played with. Whether it was after-school programs, STEM or a children’s hospital, I knew sports were a powerful vehicle to impact kids. When the US Men’s National Team failed to qualify for the World Cup, I saw the accountability and discourse wasn’t about us shirking responsibility; it was about opening up the game to as many kids as possible in this country. That was never a part of the dialogue between federation leadership as it relates to our direction as a soccer nation, so I felt a need to push the conversation in that direction.
I was blown away by the amount of people working on solutions for this, yet disappointed that it wasn’t a priority of the federation. But I quickly realized that even if the federation could solve all of the problems, it’s up to us to roll up our sleeves to really make an impact. I wouldn’t have realized all of this without deconstructing the landscape in my run for US Soccer President, so I’ll never be able to go back to seeing it the way I had before.
Tom Farrey (TF): Project Play and the shift in my career came from an organic place in my life. I’ve been a journalist since I was 17-years-old; all I wanted to do was dig out stories and tell them. When I wrote my book in 2008, it became clear to me that we have a youth sports system that is dysfunctional at best, and broken at worst. The consequence of that is placed on public health and community vitality. I felt like I knew something, and everyone asked me to do something about it – to create a solution. The next thing I know, I had a conversation with my boss at ESPN, and I asked to focus more of my time on the Aspen Institute and Project Play.
Kathy Schloessman (KS): We host sporting events all the time, all over the country. When you hear someone saying, “This is the best day of my life”, or re-telling a story from an event, it makes you realize how important these events are. We put on hundreds of events, so when you hear from participants about the impact it had on them, it makes us realize we’re making a difference.
Ronit Larone (RL): Athlete activism is important to me, and us, because our athletes are real people. They’re people who come from all walks of life. The way the players engage with the community is authentic and inspirational. You can see the affect it has in so many ways, and how it motivates others to get involved as well. With Huddle for 100, we’re asking everyone to come out side-by-side to donate time and minutes to important causes. The players are there, not because they’re supposed to be, but because they want to be. Many have their own foundations or lend their voices to existing organizations. Their dedication and presence makes an enormous impact in local communities.
Huddle for 100 is tied directly to our 100th season, and is an opportunity for us to not only highlight the history of the game, but to amplify the NFL’s Social Responsibility platform as well. From this perspective, along with our own responsibility to serve communities, we’re focused on telling these stories from around the country. And the players have been a part of it all. We have a filmmaker who has participated in all of our national Huddle events, and has done documentary work with the players to highlight those being impacted by this initiative. As the players share why it’s so important to them to give back to the communities in which they play and live, we get to meet some of the people effected by the Huddles and see one of the many positive effects athlete activism has when people get to meet and talk to the players and hear of their own personal experiences.
2. Which athlete did you most look up to as you grew up and/or played sports?
SS: As a black athlete, and more specifically a tennis player, I looked up to Venus and Serena Williams. I watched them on TV every chance I got and they’re obviously inspirational athletes in my eyes.
MH: Growing up, I always admired was my older brother. I followed him around and tried to emulate everything he did. As I watched more sports on TV, most of my athletic female role models played sports that I didn’t play, like Chris Evert and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. What’s great about today’s world is that you can watch women on TV that play your sport.
KM: Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders were some of my role models. I had a lot of role models because I saw so many different ways that you can express yourself and engage in athletics. I was a multi-sport athlete through high-school, so I gravitated towards athletes who were able to excel across multiple sports.
TF: I looked up to George Gervin because of his creativity and love of game which was so evident. He was the athlete that made you fall in love with what the human body can do.
KS: One of my role models now in my professional capacity is Renata Simril. She’s passionate about her work in the community and she’s elevating LA84 to greater heights.
3. If you had a crystal ball, what do you envision being the most pressing issue over the next 3-5 in this space?
SS: I’d encourage all athletes to focus on doing one thing. We have a voice and we have a platform -- you don’t need to have your own foundation, but it’s important to do one thing in the community to make it a better place. If we as athletes all focus on doing just one thing through our respective sport, we’ll make a positive impact.
MH: From our foundation’s perspective, we’re always trying to impact more individuals. I know for us, if we’re able to cast a little bit wider net, we’re able to change more people’s lives. We’ve done marrow drives that have been successful in finding donor matches, which has literally saved lives.
In regards to philanthropy, there are so many great causes out there. For a lot of athletes, it’s personal as it ties back to some experience they’ve had in their life. This enables you to invest more time and energy because it impacts you.
KM: Keeping the appetite and excitement for sports as a social justice instrument alive. It’s pressing and important, and it’s at the forefront of people’s minds. I feel like we miss the moment to tell people this isn’t a quick fix solution – it will take constant focus and energy to ensure that the landscape we gain back isn’t like a tide that comes back in.
TF: The key question is whether policies will be introduced that can drive systems-level change. Can we do what Norway did: make a statement that every child, regardless of zip code or ability, deserves to have a sport experience? Can we start to treat sport like a must-have rather than a nice to have, and if so, what policies will back this up? We know that Title IX opened up the door for millions of girls to be introduced to a sport experience. So for me, the question is this: What are the policies that will be introduced for children in low-income communities to make sport a truly accessible and sustainable experience?
KS: For Los Angeles, it’s homelessness. From an experiential standpoint, I’m in the business of bringing major events to LA. Homelessness is a major issue in our city that we need to address as a collective good. For us at the commission, we can play a large role in helping make sure that the legacy component of all of these large events is impactful and reaches a lot of people.
RL: There are a lot of stories to tell around sustainable community involvement as we look towards the future. I’m excited to see the holistic impact made throughout NFL 100. We’ll review our programs, like Huddle for 100, and determine how to apply those learnings towards whatever is next. I’m excited about the possibilities. If we can surpass 100MM minutes by Super Bowl 54, that will be a huge milestone and set us up for the future. We’ve raised the bar every year from a community and content perspective, so we have to continue elevating our work and telling these positive stories with the goal of inspiring even more change.
3. Why is it important to support organizations like LA84 and what does the #PlayForAll movement mean to you?
SS: It’s critical to support local organizations that are doing important work in the community. It’s also imperative to get kids active and interested in sports to learn the necessary skills that help them become a better human.
MH: First of all, LA is our home. LA84 is committed to ensuring equal access and participation to every child in this community, because we all know the important life skills that can be gained through playing sports. Kids need to be kids; they need to play and enjoy their experiences, no matter what walk of life they come from. LA84 is playing a crucial role in bringing this to fruition.
KM: When you think of the Olympics as a representation of elite athletes – of patriotism and pride - as well as the celebration of multi-sport, I think there are few groups better at telling a sports story centered around amateurs. They only have every four years to showcase their talents to the world. Because many Olympians don’t have a career in professional sports that’s seen on TV, they double as doctors or baristas at Starbucks in their off-time. The Olympics are a celebration of diversity; any organization born out of one of the biggest and best global events is a spectacular one with a great legacy of doing impactful work in the community.
TF: It’s important to support organizations like LA84 because they understand sports and the value they can provide to communities. They help address these larger issues that far transcend sports.
KS: On the macro-level, LA84 is such a great example for all of the events that we’re bringing to the city. The 1984 Olympics were a major event that came to town, left a surplus of funds, and created a legacy that has lived on since that time. It’s a perfect example of how to create a sustainable organization that leaves a long-lasting impact. They’re a great model for all these events that are coming to LA; it can’t just be a program that is created out of thin air that may sound nice, it also has to have legs. LA84 has legs, and has shown that community events can be run in a way that impacts people over the long-haul.
RL: Speaking on behalf of my social responsibility colleagues at the NFL, our mission is 100% aligned with LA84. It was important for us to be involved in order to share what we’re doing to impact communities, like LA, with Huddle for 100. We want to ensure that this community is part of our platform and share something great that is working for us, in hopes that it can spur additional change here in Los Angeles and other cities. We also work here, live here, and it’s our community, so it’s incredibly important to support organizations such as LA84.