FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ryan and Sara Hall Named Visa Humanitarian Athletes of the Year
INDIANAPOLIS - 2008 Olympian Ryan Hall and his wife, 1,500m runner Sara
Hall, who in 2009 started The STEPS Foundation, have been named Visa
Humanitarian Athletes of the Year by USA Track & Field.
The Halls will be honored on Saturday, December 5 at the Jesse Owens Awards
and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in
Indianapolis, Ind. The event is held in conjunction with USA Track &
Field's 2009 Annual Meeting.
In 2009, Ryan Hall finished third in the Boston Marathon, running 2:09:40.
It was the first time an American male has finished on the podium since
1984. Hall then finished fourth overall in the ING NYC Marathon in 2:10:36
to take second in the USA Championship race. Also in New York this year,
Sara Hall took third place in the Fifth Avenue Mile in a race that was so
close that first through fourth place all finished in 4:23.
In September of this year, the Halls launched the Hall Steps Foundation,
which will fund programs to create a better life for youth living in
poverty in the United States and abroad. The foundation aims to use
running's lessons to encourage people to take "small steps" toward the goal
of tackling issues like clean water, sex trafficking, and leadership
development. Domestically, the foundation plans to create mentoring
programs for at-risk youth to train for a race with an adult runner.
Said Sara, "Ryan and I are very honored to receive this award, and wish we
could be there to accept it in person! Both of us hope through our
charitable work, including founding The Hall Steps Foundation, to leave a
positive mark on our sport and inspire lives along the way! Our goal
through The Hall Steps Foundation is to engage the running community is
social justice efforts, and we are excited to see the response of the
running community so far! We are very thankful to Visa and USATF for
providing us with events and a platform on which to compete, and it is
great to give back with all we've been blessed with. We will be using the
funds from the award to go towards our social justice efforts through The
Hall Steps Foundation. Thank you very much!"
The Halls announced their foundation in September in New York, where Sara
ran the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile that weekend and Ryan the
ING New York City Marathon on November 1. They donated their winnings from
those races to the foundation. Their charitable venture is a function of
Fun 4 Kidz, an organization providing opportunities for disadvantaged
children.
The Hall Steps Foundation, in connection with the New York Road Runners,
also funded a Young Runners program in each of the five boroughs in New
York City, helping more than 200 children learn the value of running.
"Ours can by its very nature be a selfish sport, but we are blessed that
many American track and field athletes give back to their communities,"
USATF CEO Doug Logan said, "Sarah and Ryan Hall are incredible examples of
how a humble selflessness can make running a vehicle to help others. That
charity is a prime motivator for both of them is an example we can all
learn from, in running and in life. It is with great admiration that I
congratulate Ryan and Sara on receiving this richly deserved award."
"As a long-standing partner of USA Track & Field, Visa is proud to present
the Visa Humanitarian of the Year to Ryan and Sara," said Michael Lynch,
Head of Global Sponsorship Management, Visa Inc. "They are amazing role
models and continue to inspire in and out of competition. We're proud to
recognize their work with this award."
For more information on the Hall Steps Foundation, visit
www.thestepsfoundation.org.
About Visa: Visa is a global payments technology company that connects
consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than
200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital
currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced
processing networks-VisaNet-that is capable of handling more than 10,000
transactions a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed
payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend
credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however,
enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices:
Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit
products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.
About USA Track & Field
USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and
field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States. USATF
encompasses the world's oldest organized sports, some of the most-watched
events of Olympic broadcasts, the #1 high school and junior high school
participatory sport and more than 30 million adult runners in the United
States.
For more information on USATF, visit www.usatf.org
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