Universality of the Olympic Games
Olympic Scholarships for Athletes
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Scholarships for Athletes
This Olympic Solidarity programme allowed 449 athletes from 90 NOCs to access support across all six individual sports on the Olympic Winter Games programme. An additional seven large NOCs, with delegations exceeding 50 athletes at the last Olympic Winter Games, selected the tailor-made option to invest in other forms of athlete support, such as team training camps, enhanced delegation services and similar initiatives. This customised approach offered these NOCs greater flexibility in how they allocated and utilised the programme resources to best meet their athletes’ needs.
Olympic Scholarships for Athletes – Los Angeles 2028
NOCs were invited to submit their scholarship requests for athletes targeting the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games by the end of June 2025. Following a thorough review process, the first scholarship‑holders began receiving their monthly allowance in September 2025, marking the official start of the LA 2028 Scholarships for Athletes programme.
Thanks to an increased budget, it now allows NOCs to support up to six athletes (three men and three women), compared with five in the previous cycle. This additional scholarship was introduced to further promote gender balance and provide greater opportunity in athlete selection. By the end of 2025, more than 1,000 scholarships had already been allocated to athletes from 125 NOCs.
In parallel with the individual scholarships, a tailored support option was made available to NOCs whose delegations exceeded 50 athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. By the end of the year, 28 NOCs had already begun to make use of this customised approach, enabling them to better address their specific preparation needs for LA 2028. The programme will reach full implementation in 2026, when more than 1,400 athletes are expected to access this support.
Refugee Athlete Support
In 2025, Refugee Athlete Support was delivered at both elite and youth levels.
At elite level, the first Refugee Athlete Scholarships covering the 2025–2028 period were awarded to 47 athletes (35 men and 12 women), based in 13 host NOCs, with the objective of qualifying for the Olympic Games LA28 across 15 sports.
At the youth level, the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games will host the first-ever YOG Refugee Olympic Team. Overall, ahead of Dakar 2026, Olympic Solidarity support is being provided to 33 young athletes, primarily originating from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Team Support Grant
The Olympic Solidarity Team Support Grant programme enables NOCs to select a national team to receive technical and financial support. The grant is intended to support national teams that are training for and taking part in regional, continental or world competitions. The grant can be used to fund training camps, coaching, team costs related to participating in competitions, and more. In order to increase female participation in this programme, NOCs may split the budget available between two teams, provided one of them is a women’s team.
In 2025, a total of 176 teams from 122 NOCs were supported: 163 teams in summer disciplines and 12 teams in winter sports (curling and ice-hockey, representing 11 NOCs). Nine of the teams qualified for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
IOC Subsidies for NOCs' Participation in the Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games
The IOC Subsidies supporting NOCs’ participation in the Olympic Games programme enabled 79 delegates from NOCs to attend the Milano Cortina 2026 Chef de Mission Seminar. During the seminar, Chefs de Mission gained first-hand insights into Games-time operations and services, engaged directly with the Organising Committee and fellow NOCs, and visited key competition venues as well as the Olympic Village, as part of the preparations for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.