Meet The Athletes And Executives Leading Sports Into The Future

These all-stars are expanding their industry into new sports, technologies and demographics.

By Brett Knight and Justin Birnbaum

Shannon Rhodes says she’s “one of one,” but that’s not a boast. A senior director with the NBA, leading a team that builds apps for the league, the 29-year-old Rhodes notes, sadly, that there just aren’t many other women at the intersection of sports and software engineering.

“My aim,” she says, “is to be one of many.”

Rhodes isn’t the only one redefining what success looks like in the sports world. Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, cofounder of the fast-growing sports drink brand Barcode, and Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, who has his own fantasy football show and frequently streams himself playing video games, are helping expand athletes’ opportunities off the field. Kelly Sherman, meanwhile, is aiding that effort from the agency side, working with WME Sports’ content division to launch media companies for athletes.

Diana Flores, captain of Mexico’s women’s national flag football team, is bringing attention to a new sport—one that’s headed to the 2028 Summer Olympics. And Jason Spector is introducing fans to new technologies, merging artificial intelligence with gambling as CBS Sports’ lead data scientist.

All six are members of Forbes’ 2024 30 Under 30 class in the Sports category, highlighting the all-star athletes, innovative founders and accomplished business professionals defining the future of the industry. Candidates—who had to be 29 or younger as of December 31, 2023, and could not have been previously named to a Forbes 30 Under 30 continental list—were reviewed by a panel of judges featuring some of the sports world’s biggest players: Devin Booker, the Phoenix Suns’ star shooting guard and an alum of the 2022 30 Under 30 list; Sal Galatioto, founder and president of investment bank Galatioto Sports Partners; Carolyn Kindle, CEO and co-owner of Major League Soccer’s St. Louis City SC; and Renee Montgomery, a two-time WNBA champion as a player who has transitioned to ownership with the Atlanta Dream.

Two of this year’s Under 30 listers—Lauren Esrig of the Voice in Sport Foundation and Alison Reed of Women in Sports Tech—work with nonprofits creating new opportunities for women in the industry. Natalie White, founder of Moolah Kicks, is also thinking about inclusivity, but with an entrepreneurial twist: Her company makes performance basketball sneakers designed specifically for female feet. Also in the world of women’s basketball, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier is serving as an advisor for a new league for high schoolers while aiming to launch a new professional league during the WNBA offseason.

Those efforts, and the momentum sweeping across women’s sports more broadly, helped land 18 women among the list’s 30 members.

Along with gender equality, racial diversity is also a growing concern in the industry, with KB Partners senior associate Matt Howard noting, for instance, that he is among a small group of Black investors in venture capital. But here, too, the 30 Under 30 honorees intend to make a difference. Tennis star Jessica Pegula, for example, now sits on the board of the Asian American Pacific Islander Tennis Association. In all, 15 members of this year’s list identify as people of color.

“As a young Black man, I am passionate about working in a profession that allows me to work predominantly with Black men that are considered culture drivers and sometimes even leaders in our community,” WME Sports basketball agent Isiah Turner says, adding, “I also believe that in today’s society, one of the best ways to create change is through economics, and that is one of the things that drives me every day to be successful.”

Other sports luminaries from the 2024 list include Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards, and Olivia Dunne, who leads a dual life as an LSU gymnast and as one of the faces of the NCAA’s new NIL marketing era.

Victoria Arlen, who recovered from two serious neurological conditions to win four Paralympic medals and join ESPN as an on-air host, shared her motto with Forbes, and it is surely one her fellow Under 30 listers can relate to, even under less life-threatening circumstances: “Face it, embrace it, defy it, conquer it.”

For the complete 2024 Under 30 Sports list, click here, and for full 30 Under 30 coverage, click here.

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