The impact of the ANOC-Peak Uniform Programme began to take concrete shape at Milano Cortina 2026, where it moved from being a support initiative announced on paper to becoming a visible tool for smaller delegations. The programme, led by the Association of National Olympic Committees -ANOC- together with Peak, is set to provide high-quality uniforms to athletes and officials from 48 lower-resourced committees through to Brisbane 2032, covering both the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games.

The programme should be read as more than a simple apparel sponsorship. Within the Olympic ecosystem, the uniform is also part of competitive and symbolic equality: it does not decide results, but it does shape how an athlete enters the Olympic Village, represents their country in ceremonies, and positions themselves within an Olympic community where differences in scale between delegations remain highly visible. That is the idea defended by Gaby Ahrens, chair of the ANOC Athletes’ Commission, when she argued that every athlete wants to feel equal not only in competition, but also in everything that surrounds it.

Benin and Malta, two cases that explain the programme’s purpose

At Milano Cortina 2026, only Benin and Malta ultimately qualified among the seven committees initially expected to take part in this first operational phase of the programme. The most symbolic case was that of Nathan Tchibozo, who became the first athlete in Benin’s history to compete at the Olympic Winter Games. His presence was already historic in itself, but the context added another layer: Benin made that debut within the first real deployment of the ANOC and Peak plan, with a full 32-piece kit for athletes and officials.

Tchibozo, born in France to a Beninese father and a Togolese mother, was also his country’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony. This is where the uniform stops being only equipment for competition and becomes a tool of national representation in the most visible spaces of the Games. “It is a great pride to represent my father’s country,” said the skier, who also spoke about the possibility of making an entire nation feel proud through that first Winter Olympic appearance. Malta offered a different but equally useful continuation of the same idea: the delegation competed with Jenny Axisa Eriksen, a cross-country skier who was also the country’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony, in another example of how a minimal delegation can place both competition and national visibility in a single athlete.

The other support mechanism already in place within the Olympic system

The ANOC programme does not operate on its own. At Milano Cortina 2026, it existed alongside the IOC-WFSGI NOC Uniform Support Programme, a different but complementary mechanism that was active at these Games in support of 27 athletes from 12 national committees across four winter disciplines: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing and figure skating. That plan, developed by the International Olympic Committee -IOC- together with the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry -WFSGI-, brought together several brands to provide competition clothing, accessories and, in some cases, Village wear for emerging or lower-resourced winter sport delegations.

The difference between the two programmes helps clarify the overall picture. The ANOC-Peak plan appears to be focused mainly on the committee’s overall presentation and team identity at the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games, while the IOC-WFSGI scheme is geared more towards meeting specific performance and technical clothing needs in winter sports. They do not compete with one another: they cover different layers of the same visible inequality, the one that appears when a small NOC qualifies for the Games but cannot always arrive with the same material standard as the largest delegations.

A small inequality in appearance, but a very visible one at the Games

That, ultimately, is the value of the programme. A uniform does not replace scholarships, technical support, preparation or qualification systems. Nor does it, on its own, correct the structural difference in resources between countries. But it does reduce a very visible gap in the Olympic experience: entering the world’s biggest sporting stage with a presentation that is recognisable, dignified and on equal footing. For an athlete from a small committee, wearing gear of the same standard as the major delegations does not change the clock or the course, but it does change the way they inhabit the Games and represent their country within them.

Milano Cortina 2026 therefore offered a first, fairly precise image of what this initiative can mean, and the next major step is already marked on the calendar. ANOC expects the programme to equip around 1,000 athletes from 47 committees at Dakar 2026, in an expansion far broader than the one seen at the Winter Games. After Benin and Malta, the uniform has stopped being a secondary detail and begun to appear as another piece of a familiar Olympic logic: when lower-resourced NOCs are supported, a form of inequality is also being corrected, one that is not always measured in results, but can be seen from the very first day.