New Athletes Blake Griffin, Shaun White, and Diana Flores; Sports Personalities Taylor Rooks, and Pablo Torre Confirmed to Appear at Stagwell’s (STGW) Sport Beach 2024 During Cannes Lions

Leading sports media personalities Taylor Rooks and Pablo Torre also join Sport Beach’s programming, bringing their unparalleled journalism and thought leadership to the week’s conversations. Previously, Stagwell announced the return of Sport Beach with athletes Carmelo Anthony, Sue Bird, Hélio Castroneves, Brandon Marshall and Megan Rapinoe confirmed to attend.

“As leaders, innovators, and cultural influencers, Blake, Shaun, and Diana all represent what makes athletes dynamic and interesting in new ways,” said Stagwell Chief Brand and Communications Officer Beth Sidhu. “We’re proud to feature these athletes who are paving the way in their respective sports and industries, and to welcome our new commentators and brand partners to Sport Beach 2024.”

Athletes

• Diana Flores (flag football) – Star quarterback and captain of Mexico’s National Team. A World Games Gold medalist, Diana also serves as the NFL & IFAF’s Flag Football global ambassador.
• Akbar Gbajabiamila (football) – Television host and former NFL player. He serves as host of THE TALK, CBS’ Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show as well as host of NBC’s competition series “American Ninja Warrior.”
• Blake Griffin (basketball) – A 14-year NBA veteran with six NBA All-Star appearances and the 2011 NBA Rookie of the Year under his belt. The former Slam Dunk Champion has cultivated a reputation for his business acumen and investing prowess and appeared on the cover of the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30. He founded Mortal Media, a Los Angeles- based film and television production company, in 2016 with his partner Ryan Kalil.
• Shaun White (snowboarding and skateboarding) – One of the greatest action sports athletes of all time. 3x Gold Medal winning Snowboard Champion, becoming the first athlete to compete in both the Winter and Summer games and now Founder of his own snowboard brand,  WHITESPACE.

Journalists

• Taylor Rooks – An Emmy nominated broadcaster, journalist, and cultural icon known most prominently for her work with Turner Sports/Bleacher Report and Amazon’s Thursday Night Football. For the success of her work, Taylor has been featured in Sports Illustrated: “100 Influential Black Women in Sports” and is considered one of the most influential figures in sports media today.
• Pablo Torre is one of the most dynamic voices in sports media. Currently, he hosts Pablo Torre Finds Out with Meadowlark Media and previously hosted and contributed to various programs at ESPN, including the television program High Noon with Bomani Jones and the podcast ESPN Daily.

Brand Partners

• NBCUniversal returns as a premier partner of Sport Beach. As one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies, NBCUniversal creates world-class content that is distributed across its portfolio of film, television and streaming, and brought to life in its theme parks. A subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, NBCUniversal owns and operates an expansive portfolio of news, entertainment, film, streaming, and television brands.
• The North Face is a new partner of Sport Beach and will be creating an interactive rock-climbing wall, built to provide a new activity for attendees. Since 1966 The North Face has proudly been a first choice for the world’s most accomplished climbers, mountaineers, extreme skiers, snowboarders, endurance runners, and every-day explorers. The North Face is excited to partner with Sport Beach to bring climbing to Cannes ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris this Summer, where the brand will sponsor the Olympic climbing uniforms for the USA, France, Austria, Japan and South Korea.

Stagwell invites brands, athletes, sports leagues/teams, media platforms, journalists, and other interested parties who would like to partner on the ground to reach out to cannescomms@stagwellglobal.com for more information. Sport Beach will be produced by TEAM Enterprises in partnership with Cheerful Twentyfirst.

About Stagwell

Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

Media Contact

Sarah Arvizo

pr@stagwellglobal.com