Olna Ford is a 12-time beauty pageant winner and internationally recognized businesswoman, athlete, and sports innovator. Her rise to prominence began when she became the first New Zealander crowned at the American Dream Pageant World Final in the Bahamas — a milestone that launched an international career spanning modeling, media, endurance sport, business development, and high-performance sport leadership.

Olna secured a five-year contract as the Face, Body, and Voice of Contours Women’s Health and Fitness Studios across Australasia, followed by a four-year role as Miss Weider for The Total Fitness Company. In this role, she fronted television campaigns, voiced national radio commercials, and led live promotional events throughout the region.

As a sponsored ultra-endurance athlete, Olna gained national attention for extreme charity endurance events, including a 36-hour walk from Hamilton to Auckland and a 24-hour treadmill run during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fitness weekend in Columbus, Ohio. Her achievements led to magazine covers, billboard campaigns, television interviews, and sponsorships from some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Nike, Puma, Adidas, Reebok, Toyota, Chrysler, Speedo, and Ray-Ban.

Her international modeling career expanded into large-scale business opportunities, eventually leading her into business development and sports management. As a business development manager, Olna challenged restrictive industry barriers to help take Contours Women’s Fitness Studios into Australia, generating an extraordinary $7.8 million in sales over two weekends of trade shows.

Since 2016, Olna has dedicated herself to building and investing in the sport of Long Drive in New Zealand and internationally. Celebrating a decade, she is approaching 50 events while positioning the sport as a standalone high-performance discipline distinct from traditional golf. Her leadership contributed to her company collective receiving official recognition as High Performance Sport by New Zealand’s Sports Minister in 2020.

This recognition opened new pathways for athletes and the sport itself, including a Halberg Awards nomination in 2021, a Queen’s Honour awarded to XDL’s leading female athlete in 2022, and 21 international business awards since 2022. Olna recently achieving the Hall of Fame award after winning Best Sports League three consecutive years and was recently appointed President of the E Sports World Federation for Target Sports.

Today, Xtreme Drivers League continues to expand globally under Olna’s leadership, combining sport, entertainment, business innovation, and athlete development into what she describes as “the new chapter.”