Athletes and Entourage
In 2023, highlights related to entourage and sports development programmes included the final preparations for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, but also for the Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024, with Olympic Solidarity’s coaches and youth athlete development programmes supporting coaches and young hopefuls on their road to Gangwon.
Olympic Solidarity’s Athlete Career Transition programme provides NOCs with technical and financial assistance to support athletes, specifically Olympians, as they look to ensure a successful life outside competition – for instance, by pursuing an individual education project or taking the Athlete365 Business Accelerator course on entrepreneurship. Athletes from 64 NOCs benefitted from the programme in 2023.
The NOC Athletes’ Commission Activity Grant empowers athletes while contributing to the growth of an effective global athlete representation network. NOCs can use the grant to fund activities proposed by existing NOC athletes’ commissions, or to support the creation of a new athletes’ commission – which is less common, as 190 NOCs now have an athletes’ commission of their own. In 2023, this grant was requested by 103 NOCs.
This programme, which offers active NF-recognised coaches the opportunity to attend courses in general or in technical fields such as training planning, physical conditioning, mental preparation and nutrition, offered a total of 285 courses in 2023, benefitting more than 5,900 coaches, including more than 1,500 female coaches, from 133 NOCs.
This programme targeted at national federation-recognised coaches covers continuous training in sports sciences, sport-specific training or tailor-made training at a high-level training centre, university or IF-run establishment. In 2023, Olympic Solidarity awarded 393 scholarships to coaches from 140 NOCs.
This plan helps NOCs to develop and strengthen their basic coaching structures and related sports systems by putting in place a medium-term or long-term action plan for one or more Olympic sports. In 2023, 92 projects from 70 NOCs were supported.
2023 was also a crucial year for final preparations for the Youth Olympic Winter Games Gangwon 2024. NOCs took the opportunity of the three options offered by the Youth Athlete Development programme to support their young athletes in the final stretch of their preparations.
This grant helps NOCs to train their athletes for world, continental and regional multi-sports games, and eventually the Olympic Games. By the end of 2023, 161 NOCs had benefitted from this programme.