THIS JUST IN…

…FROM CBS SPORTS

         CBS Sports Hall of Fame sportscaster Lesley Visser will be speaking on “How Sports Can Change the Culture” at the Doha GOALS Forum in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 10-12, at the invitation of the Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Richard Attias, who produced, among other events, the World Economic Forum in Davos.

         Created and designed by the Emir of Qatar as a new initiative to develop the use of sports as a driver for social and economic change, the Doha GOALS Forum has assembled sports leaders from around the world.

         Visser, the most highly acclaimed female sportscaster of all time, will be speaking about her trailblazing career, which changed the American sports culture.  In addition, she will moderate panels that will include Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organizing Committee for 2012 Olympic Summer Games.  She also will interview Olympian Oscar Pistorious “the Blade Runner,” who was the first double amputee to compete in the Olympic Games; and Francois Pienaar, who captained the 1995 South Africa World Cup Rugby champions.  Pienaar was played by Matt Damon in the motion picture "Invictus." 

         Also while in Qatar, Visser will speak to Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service at the invitation of former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who now serves as the Chairman of the Board of Georgetown University.

         Visser is the first and only woman enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame recognized as the 2006 Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.  She was the first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch.  In the mid-1970s while writing for the Boston Globe, she became the first woman to cover the NFL as a beat when the credentials read, “No Women or Children in the Press Box.”

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CBS Sports Contact: Jerry Caraccioli          212-975-7466             gwcaraccioli@cbs.com