Zwift launches year-long Black Celebration series

Zwift has announced the launch of the Black Celebration Series (BCS), a year-long initiative the company says was created to, “celebrate the history, athletes, heritage, and joy the Black community brings to Zwift from around the world.”

The series will kick off in February and run for 12 months. All BCS events will be held in the Zwift New York world. Zwift says the New York map was chosen because many legendary Black cyclists, including Major Taylor and Nelson Vails, got their start in the city.

“I’m delighted to begin our year-long Black Celebration Series this February and celebrate the achievements of the Black athletic community worldwide,” says Eric Min, Zwift CEO and co-founder. “This is the first externally focused initiative spearheaded by our new Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) department who will also be running internal training and education programs on Racial Justice. It’s important to come together as one community and we will continue to provide further opportunities for all as part of our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.”

Events will include special guest such as Nelson Vails, Ama Nsek, Rahsaan Bahati, and Aisha Praught-Leer, as well as community leaders from the Black Cyclist Network and Level Up Movement. Leaders will keep between 1.5 – 2w/kg along the Mighty Metropolitan route in New York with each event lasting for one hour.

LA Bicycle Academy

Zwift also announced LA Bicycle Academy (LABA) as the charity partner of the Black Celebration Series. The organization was formed by the former co-founder of Major Motion, Damon Turner, with the intent of supporting and sponsoring youth athletes who may not have had the resources to continue their cycling career. Turner has previously mentored cyclists such as Justin Williams, Cory Williams, Rahsaan Bahati and Coryn Rivera.

Zwift hopes to expand LABA’s impact through a donation and says it will provide the young cyclists with mentoring opportunities that will carry them beyond a professional career.

Year-long series of events on Zwift to celebrate the achievements of Black athletes
Zwift, the online training platform for cyclists, runners and triathletes worldwide, has today announced the launch of the Black Celebration Series (BCS), a year-long initiative to celebrate the history, athletes, heritage, and joy the Black community brings to Zwift from around the world.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging initiatives related to our inaugural Black Celebration Series,” says Lisa Bourne, Senior Director, Diversity, Inclusion & Social Impact at Zwift. “ We’ve designed these initiatives to celebrate Black athletes and community leaders while, at the same time, taking the opportunity to educate both our external community and our internal employees on the struggles and systemic racism which the Black community has faced in sport and in society at large. In addition, we are committed to driving meaningful impact in our local community and to that end are beyond excited to begin a partnership with the LA Bicycle Academy. I’m proud to say that we are building a strong foundation for DEIB at Zwift and are empowering the organization to champion DEIB in their day-to-day work – fully recognizing that the DEIB journey is a marathon and not a sprint.”