US at 250: How to Use the Sports Diplomacy Prism to Authentically Engage with International Audiences

Target Audience: U.S. FIFA 2026 host cities, chambers of commerce in U.S. FIFA 2026 host cities, historical societies/public history institutions in U.S. FIFA 2026 host cities, U.S. sponsors of the Olympics and FIFA World Cup, U.S. Chambers of Commerce overseas

Thanks to a contentious several years, audiences around the world have the impression of a United States divided into clashing factions, cultural tribes, and ideological extremes, one at odds with the idea of ‘America’ that’s long served to power U.S. culture, its people, and its sports globally. Moreover, questions about the country’s ability to host the world at upcoming elite sports tournaments – FIFA North America 2026, Los Angeles Summer Olympics 2028, Rugby World Cups in 2031 (men’s) and 2033 (women’s) – loom in the aftermath of the July 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where elite sportsmen and women were prevented from entering the country due to a significant visa backlog; some foreign publics read this as an attempt to stack the podium in favor of U.S. athletes. 

U.S. organizations have the extraordinary opportunity to counter this public narrative by engaging with foreign fans through the power of sports diplomacy, tapping into the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in 2026 to provide more authentic, first-hand understandings of the country, its people, and its culture through sports. Ultimately, your team will walk away from this workshop feeling confident in knowing how to develop strategic sports diplomacy communications plans for your clients. 

In this talk, Dr. Krasnoff will unpack:

  • How public history, notably the work produced by public history institutions and movements like the Smithsonian Institution-led MadeByUS, can inflect the communications messaging and storytelling of sporting organizations, teams, sponsors, etc without getting ensnared in political culture wars

  • 21st century sports diplomacy, what it is, how the diffusion of who engages in it provides new opportunities for non-state sports actors like athletes, coaches, teams, leagues, companies, and sponsors 

  • What sports diplomacy's cultural, technical, and knowledge exchanges can look like

  • How her signature SPORT Method can help U.S. sports PR, communications, and marketing professionals develop strategic sports diplomacy communication plans for their clients