The numbers behind the Olympic Solidarity program and success stories on the road to Paris 2024
Yeray Vergara
July 9, 2024

The report, whose theme is “Preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” describes the direct support provided to athletes in 2023 through a total of 1,260 individual scholarships from 154 NOCs. This has since increased to 1,331 athletes from 159 NOCs, spanning 26 sports.

With a special focus on athletes and NOCs with the greatest needs, Olympic Solidarity scholarships ensure that athletes from all backgrounds have the opportunity to compete on the world’s greatest stage, ensuring true universality and diversity at the Olympic Games. The support provided through these scholarships is showcased in the report through the story of Jordanian taekwondo athlete Julyana Al-Sadeq.

“I always dreamed of competing on the Olympic stage,” she says. “When I discovered the Olympic Solidarity program, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to turn that dream into reality. This program has been a turning point for me, as it has provided me with financial support. It has allowed me to focus on my training without the added stress of financial burdens. It has greatly improved my skills and performance to become stronger and more confident, more determined and more disciplined in the sport.”

In addition to individual scholarships, 206 Summer Olympic sports teams (112 women’s and 94 men’s teams) from 135 NOCs benefited from the OS Team Support Scholarship program in 2023. Since then, this number has increased to 215 Summer Olympic sports teams (116 women’s and 99 men’s teams) from 140 NOCs.

The launch of the scholarships for the next Olympic Winter Games, Milano Cortina 2026, took place in 2023. In the first year of this program, Olympic Solidarity awarded 197 individual scholarships to athletes from 39 NOCs. 2023 was also a key year for the final preparations for the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Winter Games. Olympic Solidarity’s Young Athlete Development Program played a crucial role in equipping young athletes with customized training opportunities provided by International Federations (IFs) in partnership with Olympic Solidarity.

TRAINING FOR MORE THAN 6,300 COACHES

As part of the IOC’s efforts to address this challenge, Olympic Solidarity, in cooperation with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF), the Winter Olympic Federations (WOF) and several international federations, launched WISH: the Women in Sport High Performance Coaching program .

The report highlights a two-week skate camp in California in November 2023, where WISH coaches met with 15 athletes from 13 countries. Ewa Niedzielska, a WISH participant and director of Italy’s national street team, recalls the importance of young athletes seeing the possibility of becoming coaches. “For us and for the kids, they saw that they could do it. Because they saw us do it,” Niedzielska said. “They saw that girls can do it.”

                 

In total, Olympic Solidarity provided support to more than 6,300 coaches in 2023, through two programs, one on technical courses for recognized active coaches, offering them the opportunity to improve their skills in planning, physical conditioning, mental preparation or nutrition. A total of 285 courses were delivered in 2023, benefiting more than 5,900 coaches, including more than 1,500 female coaches, from 133 NOCs. Olympic scholarships for coaches cover continuing education in sports science, sport-specific training or tailor-made training at a high-level training center, a university or an IF-managed center. In 2023, Olympic Solidarity awarded 393 scholarships to coaches from 140 NOCs.

GLOBAL SUPPORT

In 2023, the Olympic Movement‘s solidarity was felt in its support for NOCs around the world. The Olympic Movement announced a $1 million emergency fund to help the Olympic community, refugees and displaced persons in areas affected by the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023.

The NOCs and their partners around the world spread Olympic values in 2023 through the Olympic Solidarity Values Programme and Olympism365 , the IOC’s strategy to strengthen the role of sport as an important enabler of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Throughout the year, in addition to implementing hundreds of Olympic values projects that increase access to safe sport and its benefits, the NOCs also contributed to promoting the UN SDGs using sport through their engagement with Olympism365-supported partnerships.

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