Ahead of the HSBC LA Sevens, USA Rugby and HSBC will launch the final instalment of ‘The Pioneers’, the documentary following the men’s and women’s USA team as they head to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
LOS ANGELES, Cal. – Feb. 24, 2023 – USA Rugby and HSBC, title partner of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, have announced the upcoming release of the final instalment of the three-part award-winning documentary ‘The Pioneers’. The feature-length documentary follows both the USA Men’s and Women’s Rugby Sevens teams as they strive to make their stamp on the American sports community through rugby and become Olympic gold medal winners in Tokyo. Both episodes of the Pioneers Part III can be seen on the NBC Sports YouTube channel, premiering Friday, February 24 at 6:00pm PT.
Rugby in the United States is entering an exciting and vital phase, with the Summer Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 2028, along with the Men’s and Women’s Rugby World Cup to follow in 2031 and 2033. While every moment is a building block towards those events, the Tokyo Olympic games were a unique experience for athletes and fans alike where The Pioneers Part III gives a special behind the scenes look into the USA Rugby Sevens preparation.
USA Rugby CEO, Ross Young said on The Pioneers: “It’s incredibly exciting to see another chapter of The Pioneers come to life and for the Women’s program to be featured in the upcoming edition. The legacy for each team transcends medals, as we look to inspire our communities to be brave, ignite a love for rugby and unite the country - even if just 14 minutes at a time. As an organization, we hope that through being featured in ‘The Pioneers’, people can gain insight into our sport’s purpose, our players and our values.”
HSBC, a fierce champion of using internationalism to drive opportunity and innovation, has been a vocal cheerleader for this approach, and is an enabler of projects that help the sport grow in this diverse and internationally minded way across the globe.
HSBC, USA Rugby and NBC Sports released ‘The Pioneers’ (Parts one and two), which follows the USA men’s team as they attempt to win the Rugby World Cup Sevens on home soil in San Francisco.
The final instalment, Part Three will pick up the story at a moment of incredible opportunity for the men’s and women’s teams as they set flight to the Tokyo Olympics to chase a lifelong dream and break new ground for the sport. Part Three is two, 20-minute episodes, one dedicated to the men’s team (The DAWGS) and the other to the women’s team (The BRAVE).
The move to incorporate both teams with the final episode is reflective of HSBC’s global commitment to gender equality. HSBC has been an active part of working with World Rugby to ensure rugby sevens continues to lead the way in this area, including the expansion of the women’s series. In the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 we saw a new combined round for the men’s and women’s series in both Vancouver and Hong Kong for the first time, bringing the total number of combined tournaments up to 7.
Sven Gloor, Global Senior Brand Partnerships Manager at HSBC said: “We are delighted to once again bring the story of ‘The Pioneers’ to fans around the world, featuring two incredibly talented teams with players from a diverse range of backgrounds. It is vital that both young boys and young girls have sevens heroes to inspire them, and we are therefore delighted that we will be following the USA Women’s Sevens journey in part three of ‘The Pioneers’. This is an important moment for the women’s game and HSBC is proud to continue to drive progress in this area.”