Vanessa Garcia-Brito Is on a Mission to Get—and Keep—Girls in Sports

Vanessa Garcia-Brito is tired of the narrow lens put on sports. “When people hear ‘sports,’ a default image might come to mind,” she says. “I like to say, ‘Life is sport.’ Your hurdles may not be on a track—they could be just getting out of the house, navigating a commute, or simply moving through your day. Life itself requires movement, so expanding what ‘sport’ means is key.”

As Nike’s chief social and impact officer, getting people into sport is literally part of Garcia-Brito’s job description, and in her words, “It has to be fun…and inclusive.” Hence, expanding how we view it. But also, supporting young athletes at the start of their journey. Her biggest challenge right now? Changing the playing field, quite literally, for girls.

Garcia-Brito and I meet in Tokyo in October at the Coach the Dream Summit, a powerful five-day gathering of sports leaders, coaches, and advocates driven by a shared purpose: to ask not only how to get more girls into sports but how to keep them there. The summit, cohosted with Laureus Sport for Good, brings this mission to life with workshops, discussions, and a play day for local girls, who were surprised with a visit from tennis icon Naomi Osaka and five-time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin. For Garcia-Brito, a lawyer by training who has spent years building community-first programs (she led communications for Nike’s lauded Girl Effect campaign), it’s a moment to push her vision forward. “Urgency is the starting point,” she says. Only one in five girls globally receive the physical activity they need to thrive—a figure that speaks volumes about both health and gender equity.

Her approach goes beyond any single event or initiative; it’s about transforming a culture. This year’s summit introduced a new coaching guide developed with Laureus Sport for Good, built on Garcia-Brito’s belief in the “Six Cs” (clarity, concise communication, confidence, choice, celebration, and connection). These principles are not just theoretical; they’re Garcia-Brito’s blueprint for how coaches, parents, and communities can reshape sports to foster resilience, inclusion, and, above all, joy. “Girls have told us they need sports to be fun, inclusive, and reflective of who they are,” she shares. “Especially during those years when dropout rates soar, they want to feel heard and represented.”

Working alongside initiatives like Play Academy with Naomi Osaka—now expanded to Haiti and Los Angeles—Garcia-Brito’s commitment to reshaping girls’ sports on a global scale comes into focus. Partnerships with brands like Dove and others reinforce her belief in sport as a transformative force, creating spaces where girls feel they truly belong. For Garcia-Brito, igniting this cultural shift goes far beyond a corporate mandate; it’s her personal mission to drive meaningful change in communities, one girl, one coach, and one game at a time.