Sports Envoy
Sports Envoy Program

Region: Russia

Willie O’Ree

Ice Hockey

Served as envoy

  • 2021  –  Virtual
  • 2021  –  China
  • 2021  –  Russia

Willie O’Ree is a  Canadian  former professional ice hockey player, best known for being the first black player in the National Hockey League. O’Ree played as a winger for the Boston Bruins. O’Ree is referred to as the “Jackie Robinson of ice hockey” for breaking the black color barrier in the sport. O’Ree played much of his professional career in the United States and settled in San Diego following his retirement.  He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2018. Since 1997, O’Ree has been the NHL’s Diversity Ambassador, traveling across North America to schools and hockey programs to promote messages of inclusion, dedication, and confidence.

Blake Bolden

Ice Hockey

Served as envoy

  • 2021  –  Russia
  • 2021  –  China
  • 2021  –  Global

Blake Bolden has broken many barriers in achieving many firsts in the sport of women’s ice hockey. After graduating from Boston College, she joined the Boston Blades of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, winning the Clarkson cup in 2015. In 2016, she played for the Boston Pride of the National Women’s Hockey League winning the inaugural Isobel Cup. Dawned the Jackie Robinson of women’s hockey, she is the first black player drafted in the first round of the CWHL and the first ever to compete in the NWHL. Blake currently resides in San Diego, California during the off-season, working with girls all over the country specializing in mental skills, goal setting, and nutrition, using her Blake Bolden Athletics platform. She has now joined the Los Angeles Kings as their newest pro scout.

Anson Carter

Ice Hockey

Served as envoy

  • 2021  –  Russia
  • 2021  –  China
  • 2021  –  Global

Anson Carter is a former professional hockey player, playing for eight different NHL teams over the course of his career. Since joining NBCSN in 2013, Carter has worked on NBC Sports Group’s coverage of the NHL regular season, Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final. In 2005, Carter founded Big Up Entertainment, a record label specializing in hip hop music. Carter is also a co-founder of the clothing line SOMB (Shirt Off My Back). Proceeds from sales go towards providing uniforms for underprivileged youth in Africa.

Valarie Jenkins

Disc Golf

Served as envoy

  • 2015  –  Russia

Valarie Jenkins is a professional disc golfer, currently the number one ranked female disc golfer in the world. Growing up in a disc golf family, she was around the sport from an early age. She began her professional career in 2003 after placing second in the Amateur World Championships. Valarie has won 13 majors during the course of her career, including three World Championships. During the three years that Valarie was the world champion (2007-2009), she won 22 tournaments that were National Tour Events or Majors. Valarie remains one of only four women in the history of Disc Golf to have won at least 3 PDGA World Championships.

Rachael Flatt

Figure Skating

Served as envoy

  • 2014  –  Russia

Rachael Flatt is a former American competitive figure skater. Flatt began skating at 4 years old. Competing in ladies’ singles, Flatt won the US Novice national title at the age of 12 (2005). She is the 2008 World Junior champion, a winner of four silver medals on the Grand Prix series, and the 2010 U.S. National Champion. In the same year, she was nominated to represent the US at the 2010 Winter Olympics and placed 7th.

Flatt completed the first step in qualifying for nationals by winning the 2014 Central Pacific Regionals. She placed first in both the short and the long with an overall score of 139.48. This was her first step in attempting to make her second Olympic team. On January 12, 2014, she placed 18th at the U.S. Championships and announced her retirement from competitive skating.

Evan Lysacek

Figure Skating

Served as envoy

  • 2012  –  Sweden
  • 2012  –  Belarus
  • 2014  –  Russia
  • 2020  –  Japan
  • 2020  –  Malaysia
  • 2020  –  Singapore

Following his figure skating Gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Lysacek was chosen as the 2010 United States Olympic Committee’s SportsMan of the Year, and the winner of the James E. Sullivan Award as the top U.S. amateur athlete of 2010. On January 22, 2016, he was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. Evan Lysacek is the last American male figure skater to win an individual Olympic medal. He was a Sports Envoy in Belarus and Sweden in 2012 and Russia in 2014.

“With these adults, with young kids, with people who have nothing to do with skating whatsoever… our common language is sports and it transcends differences in language and differences in culture.” “I really feel like they absorbed the on-ice skills that I was trying to teach,” he said. “But also, I think they absorbed the message from what we were talking about a little bit and how that can help them if they continue skating, whatever skating will mean in their life, but it will also help them in everything that they do.”

Ibtihaj Muhammad

Fencing

Served as envoy

  • 2013  –  United Kingdom
  • 2013  –  Russia
  • 2021  –  Global
  • 2022  –  Morocco

Ibtihaj Muhammad is an entrepreneur, activist, speaker and Olympic medalist in fencing. A 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, 5-time Senior World medalist and World Champion, in 2016, Ibtihaj became the first American woman to compete in the Olympics in hijab. Ibtihaj was a 3-time All American at Duke University where she graduated with a dual major in International Relations and African Studies. In 2014, Ibtihaj launched her own clothing company, Louella, which aims to bring modest, fashionable and affordable clothing to the United States market. In 2017, Mattel announced their first hijabi Barbie, modeled in Ibtihaj’s likeness, as part of Barbie’s “Shero” line of dolls. The Barbie became available for purchase in July 2018. Ibtihaj released her debut memoir in July 2018, PROUD: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream. Ibtihaj released her third book, children’s picture book, The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab & Family, that became a New York Times’ Best-Seller.

Ibtihaj is a sports ambassador with the U.S. Department of State’s Empowering Women and Girls through Sport Initiative, and works closely with organizations like Athletes for Impact and the Special Olympics. Named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential list, Ibtihaj is an important figure in a larger global discussion on equality and the importance of sport. Her voice continues to unite both the sports and non-sports world.

Misty May-Treanor

Volleyball

Served as envoy

  • 2010  –  Russia

Misty May was one of the greatest college athletes of her time. She won consecutive National Volleyball Player of the Year awards and as a senior was presented the Honda-Broderick Cup as the nation’s top collegiate female athlete in any sport.

After completing her collegiate eligibility, May joined the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team, but her traditional volleyball career did not last long. A few months later, May quit the team to focus on her budding beach volleyball career with partner Holly McPeak. The two participated in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games but did not medal.

Perhaps the most important moment of May’s experience at the Sydney Games was her family meeting the family of indoor volleyball player Kerri Walsh, which led to the two players becoming a beach volleyball tandem.

“She drove down to my house in California and I said, ‘Why don’t you just try it? Either you like it or you don’t,’ ” May said.

Together, May and Walsh became the most dominant team in the sport, winning gold medals at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and London 2012 Olympic Games. Along the way, May-Treanor (she married baseball player Matt Treanor in 2004) made sure to remember her roots; she would often sign autographs and take pictures with as every fan wanting one.

“You never know what conversation will change somebody’s life,” she said.

Parnes Cartwright

Wheelchair Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2015  –  Russia

Parnes Cartwright was the head coach as well as the executive director for the Miami Heat Wheel’s wheelchair basketball team. He played a crucial role in the documentary “The Rebound” in which he explains how he got involved in wheelchair basketball and Miami Heat Wheels.

Trooper Johnson

Wheelchair Basketball

Served as envoy

  • 2015  –  Russia
  • 2016  –  Algeria
  • 2016  –  Morocco
  • 2018  –  Kuwait

Coach Johnson is a legendary NWBA member, showcase in the iconic symbol of the NWBA, as a NWBA Hall of Famer and Paralympian. As an athlete, Johnson is the only U.S. player to compete on 15 National Teams (1990-2004), and is widely acknowledged as the most prolific three-point shooter in NWBA history. His shooting accuracy led Team USA to the top of the medal platform for a total of nine gold medals and one silver medal. He also has two bronze medals as an athlete at the 1996 and 2000 Paralympic Games, and was a member of the 1992 and 2004 U.S. Paralympic teams.

Professionally, Johnson is the Sports Program Coordinator for the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program in California, which includes being the head coach of the Junior Road Warriors Wheelchair Basketball Team. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Northern California Olympians & Paralympians. Johnson first found the sport of wheelchair basketball after being involved in a car accident at the age of 17 that left him paralyzed. After that, wheelchair basketball was all he knew. Coach Johnson resides in San Lorenzo, California. He and his wife, Megan, have a son Max, and triplets, Hank, Sam and Sophia.