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Funding

How the IOC finances a better world through sport

The IOC is a non-profit organisation, dedicated to using the revenue generated from the Olympic Games to assist athletes and develop sport worldwide. As a result, every day the IOC distributes the equivalent of USD 4.2 million around the world to help athletes and sporting organisations.

The Olympic Games generate substantial revenues almost unparalleled across the sporting world. In total, through the sale of broadcasting and marketing rights, as well as other income streams, the revenue for the period that spanned 2017 to 2020/21, covering the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, was USD 7.6 billion.

Ninety per cent distributed to athletes and sports development across the globe

Because the IOC is a non-profit organisation, 90 per cent of the revenues from the Games go straight back into sport and athlete development. In total, around USD 2.8 billion is put towards the staging of the Olympic Games, to ease the financial burden on the host cities. From Athens 2004 to Tokyo 2020 (summer editions), and from Salt Lake City 2002 to Beijing 2022 (winter editions), the IOC has increased its contribution towards the success of the Games, allocating a total of USD 1.892 billion for Tokyo 2020 (including some costs of the postponement of the Games) and USD 970 million for Beijing 2022. A considerable sum is also put towards the cost of staging the Youth Olympic Games every two years.

Fifty per cent of WADA’s budget comes from the IOC

As laid out in the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 and its successor, Olympic Agenda 2020+5, supporting athletes is at the heart of the Olympic Movement. This is done during the Olympic Games, through the whole Games-time experience for athletes, the Olympic Village, travel grants and all the support athletes receive throughout the 17 days of competition. But beyond the Games, the IOC’s funds are also used to finance the network of athletes’ commissions across the globe which promotes the empowerment of athletes and enables their voices to be heard. Protecting clean athletes is extremely important to the IOC, and therefore substantial investment is made in the anti-doping ecosystem, with 50 per cent of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s funding coming directly from the IOC, while the other 50 per cent comes from the governments of the world.

USD 590 million for Olympic Solidarity

The IOC also aims to make success at the Games achievable by everyone, and so, every Olympic cycle, a substantial portion of the profits from the Games is allocated through the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) directly to help athletes and coaches from countries and territories that require the most financial support as part of the Olympic Solidarity programme. This is particularly vital as talent and determination alone are not always enough to reach the top. High-level coaching, preparation and the ability to travel to competitions, including qualifying events, are also required.

Because of this, as part of the current Olympic Solidarity Plan – which runs from 2021 to 2024 – USD 590 million, an increase of 16 per cent on the previous four-year plan, is being spent on various world and continental programmes going, among other things, towards athlete development, training coaches and sports administrators, and Olympic values education to make the Olympic Games more accessible across the globe. Part of this money is used to fund the Olympic scholarship programmes, which provide scholarship-holders with a monthly training grant and travel subsidies to compete in Olympic qualification competitions. In addition, for athletes to progress they also need expert coaching. In 2023, Olympic Solidarity supported a total of 285 courses through the programme, benefiting 133 NOCs. Additionally, 393 coaches from 140 NOCs benefitted from Olympic scholarships for coaches.

Olympic Solidarity scholarship-holders won 113 medals at Tokyo 2020

In the run-up to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Olympic Solidarity supported over 20,000 athletes from youth-level to elite across various assistance programmes, in which 827 Olympic scholarship-holders representing 178 NOCs and 26 sports participated for Tokyo 2020. They won a total of 113 medals (30 gold, 36 silver and 47 bronze). This included three NOCs winning their first ever Olympic medal and three NOCs winning their first ever Olympic gold medal.

Olympic scholarships for 429 athletes from 80 NOCs for Beijing 2022

More than 8 per cent of competing athletes at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 were supported by the Olympic Scholarships for Athletes – Beijing 2022 programme. Olympic Solidarity awarded a total of 429 Olympic scholarships to Olympic hopefuls as part of the programme. Of these, 236 athletes, representing 80 NOCs, qualified for the Games – a qualification rate of 55 per cent – with 10 scholarship holders going on to win medals (three gold, two silver and five bronze). Sixty-five Olympic scholarship-holders were Opening Ceremony flagbearers.

75 medals won by Olympic scholarship-holders at Paris 2024

Among the more than 30,000 athletes supported in the lead-up to the Paris Games, a total of 1,560 athletes from 195 NOCs, and 215 teams from 140 NOCs received scholarships for their training. Of them, 604 individual athletes and 26 teams competed at these Games. The individual athletes represented 171 NOCs, in 24 sports, and won a total of 75 medals (26 gold, 20 silver and 29 bronze). The 26 teams were from 24 NOCs and competed in 7 sports. They won 5 medals (3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze).

Support for refugee athletes

In addition, following the success of the Refugee Olympic Team at Rio 2016, the IOC launched a new Refugee Athlete Support programme, which provides NOCs with resources to support a number of refugee athletes living in their countries and allow them to prepare for and compete in international competitions. This pool of refugee athletes served as a basis for the selection of the Refugee Olympic Team for Tokyo 2020, where 29 refugee athletes competed as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. For Paris 2024, the team was made up of 37 athletes, hosted by 15 National Olympic Committees and competing across 12 sports.

Athletes’ Career Transition programme prioritised

But the IOC’s support for athletes does not end with the Games. As part of Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC pledged to support athletes beyond the competition arena, and its 2017-2020 Olympic Solidarity Plan saw the introduction of support to the NOCs to benefit fully from the Athletes’ Career Transition programme. This programme offers athletes at various stages of their careers assistance in terms of funding and career advice. In November 2017, the IOC announced the launch of Athlete365, a dedicated brand to support the world’s Olympic-level athlete community through the provision of information, advice and e-learning courses. This is provided through a centralised digital hub, and physical outreach during Games time through the Village’s Athlete365 space, as well as before and after the Games through International Federations and NOCs.

The recent highlights include:

  • In 2022, the Athlete365 community reached the milestone of 130,000 members, an increase of 47 per cent from 2021
  • Athlete365 Career+ continues to support athletes as they prepare for and go through career transition, providing workshops and training for athletes focused on education, employment and life skills. The year 2022 saw the return of in-person events, with NOCs, IFs and Continental Associations hosting 17 in-person workshops for more than 745 participants. Sixty per cent of NOCs’ workshops were funded by the Olympic Solidarity’s Athlete Career Transition programme
  • The year 2019 saw the launch of the Athlete365 Business Accelerator, an entrepreneurial programme supported by Olympic Solidarity. In 2022, 28 Olympians were supported through the third and final stage of the programme. They received online training, took part in a challenge to record their first sale, and were assigned a local mentor to support the launch of their business.

Investment in athlete welfare

The IOC continues to prioritise athletes’ well-being, as evidenced by the continued expansion of its mental health programmes and the further development of initiatives to prevent, raise awareness of and respond appropriately to harassment and abuse in sports.

Recent highlights include:

  • Mentally Fit at Beijing 2022: Athletes competing at Beijing 2022 could access a Mentally Fit Helpline that provided them with a confidential and professional mental health support service before, during and up to three months after the Games. Staffed by expert counsellors who provided advice and support in over 70 languages, the 24-hour helpline offered practical and clinical support, structured short-term counselling and, if needed, guidance to the appropriate IOC reporting mechanisms in the event of harassment and/or abuse. The free helpline was accessible by phone, email, instant messaging or the iConnectYou app. The helpline is available at all editions of the Olympic Games.
  • Support for Olympic Movement stakeholders: The IOC has launched the IOC Mental Health in Elite Athletes Toolkit, which it has followed up by assisting IFs, NOCs and other Olympic Movement stakeholders to develop and implement programmes related to the protection and promotion of mental health and well-being in elite athletes.

The IOC has been developing programmes and initiatives to safeguard athletes from harassment and abuse in sport since 2004, and continues to offer resources to athletes and athlete representatives on safe sport and the important role they play through Athlete365. Athletes and entourage members can access tools to help identify and report cases of harassment and abuse, first-person athlete stories on the importance of the topic, free educational courses and videos, and factsheets specifically created for entourage members. The IOC has also launched the Safeguarding Officer in Sport Certificate, a pioneering course designed to help protect athletes’ safety.

In 2020, a new Olympic Solidarity programme, the NOC Athletes’ Commission Activity Grant, was made available to all NOC athletes’ commissions to help empower athletes and contribute to the development of an effective global athletes’ representation network at national level by strengthening direct financial support for their activities. In 2023, 190 NOCs had an athletes’ commission of their own, and a total of 103 NOCs requested NOC Athletes’ Commission Activity Grants to support their activities.

Olympics.com promoting athletes

In May 2021, the IOC launched Olympics.com – a single, people-centric digital platform to provide engagement opportunities, deliver original content and present Olympic communications. Olympics.com created a single destination for Olympic online properties that were previously separate, including the Olympic Channel, ioc.org, and all future Games. This comprehensive source for Olympic information, news and original content has been designed to allow for improved and streamlined digital engagement opportunities for people around the world during and between each Games – with more personalised user experiences, Games-time schedules and results, fantasy games, original content and an Olympic e-commerce presence.

The Olympic Channel exists as a live section under Olympics.com. It places athletes at the heart of its programming through content inspired by the Olympic values, and brings much deserved attention to Olympians and Olympic hopefuls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.