As the FIFA World Cup prepares to kick off across North America, a different conversation about the future of sports will take place in West Hollywood.
On June 9, athletes, entrepreneurs, investors, and civic leaders will gather at The London West Hollywood for Role Models in Sports, an invitation-only event examining how psychology, mentorship, and artificial intelligence are reshaping athlete development.
While the World Cup will showcase the world’s most gifted players on the field, organizers say the next frontier of sports may lie in understanding what happens off it.
The evening’s featured panel, Understanding the Signature Psychology of the World’s Best Athletes, will explore whether qualities such as resilience, emotional control, coachability and leadership can be measured and developed as effectively as physical performance.
That conversation arrives at a time when professional teams, colleges and sports technology companies are increasingly turning to data and AI tools to identify talent earlier and more accurately.
“Elite performance is not just physical,” said Katriina Lillelund, founder and CEO of AthreQ. “The world’s best athletes show recurring psychological patterns — resilience, adaptability, emotional control, coachability, discipline and decision speed.”
Lillelund’s company uses artificial intelligence and psychological profiling to help sports organizations evaluate athletes beyond traditional scouting metrics.
The event also highlights the growing intersection between sports, technology and business. Once focused primarily on measurable physical attributes, talent evaluation is expanding to include behavioral analytics and psychological assessment, creating a rapidly growing market for sports intelligence platforms.
Among the featured speakers is actor, engineer and martial artist Dolph Lundgren, whose athletic credentials often receive less attention than his Hollywood career. A former captain of the Swedish National Karate Team and a champion heavyweight competitor, Lundgren has spent decades studying high-performance disciplines both within and beyond sports.
Joining him will be SportsForce founder Andrew Beinbrink, a former Arizona State All-American and professional baseball player who now helps student-athletes navigate recruiting and scholarship opportunities, and former Swedish National Champion skier Lisa Tengbom, whose work spans wellness, longevity and startup mentorship.
The discussion comes as Los Angeles prepares to welcome the global soccer spotlight. The U.S. Men’s National Team opens its World Cup campaign at SoFi Stadium on June 12, placing Southern California at the center of one of the world’s largest sporting events.
For organizers, however, the event’s focus extends beyond competition.
The evening will conclude with a Mentor Award Ceremony recognizing individuals who have demonstrated leadership, resilience and positive influence on young people. The award will be presented in partnership with Mentor Foundation USA and representatives from the DEA’s Operation Engage Los Angeles initiative.
Opening remarks will be delivered by West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, one of the nation’s longest-serving elected officials.
Supported by AthreQ AI, Amazon Web Services and Milkadamia, the event reflects a growing belief across sports and technology sectors that future champions may be identified not only by what they can do physically, but by how they think, adapt and lead under pressure.
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