World programmes

The athletes are at the heart of the Olympic Movement and represent the final link of the Olympic Solidarity chain. It is thus crucial that the support they receive be adapted to their needs and follows their progress.

Active support at all levels

All World Programmes of the Olympic Solidarity 2025-2028 Plan have the same priority: to benefit the athletes and support them at every stage of their careers. Of these programmes, the scholarships support a great number of athletes directly in their preparation, thus contributing to the universality of the Olympic Games. Since their inception, these scholarships have made a tremendous difference in the careers of thousands of athletes. Find out more in our “Athletes, Our Priority” section.

Olympic Scholarships for Athletes are exclusively for elite athletes competing at the international level and offer great flexibility to the NOCs, some of which target qualification for the Games, while others aim for the Olympic podium. All can also focus on preparing and qualifying an elite team for the Olympic Games through the Team Support Grant programme.

These scholarships and grants provide elite athletes and teams worldwide financial and technical assistance to ensure that they can enjoy optimum preparation for future Games. Within the Olympic Solidarity 2025-2028 Plan, they are available for the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad Los Angeles 2028 and the XXVI Olympic Winter Games French Alps 2030. Athletes are also benefitting from it for the XXV Olympic Winter Games Milano-Cortina 2026 through the Olympic Solidarity 2021-2024 Plan.

Olympic Solidarity also caters to athletes who face particularly challenging situations in their lives: the refugee athletes. Olympic Solidarity helps their sporting development by giving them the opportunity to train for and take part in high-level competitions without being penalised by the situation in their countries.

The entourage occupies a central role in an athlete’s career and is key to progress. So many factors are essential to have the right entourage: people aware of key areas such as anti-doping, protecting clean athletes, and preventing discrimination, harassment and manipulation of competitions. The Entourage World Programmes support members of the entourage, including coaches, by providing them with the tools to improve their knowledge at all levels.

These programmes also support other key elements of an athlete’s career, including being heard off the field of play, for example through their NOC’s Athletes’ Commission, and planning their career transition via training programmes and workshops of the IOC’s Athlete365 Career+ Power Up Outreach Programme. Another objective of these programmes is to encourage NOCs to take a rigorous approach when selecting their candidates, as course participants will subsequently be expected to help develop the overall sports structure in the region or country, and to promote the participation of women by encouraging NOCs to nominate female applicants for the various programmes.

From grassroots to elite level, from amateur structures to professional athletes, sport development occupies an important place within the programmes implemented by Olympic Solidarity, in collaboration with the International and National Federations and other key partners. These programmes are divided into four main areas:

• supporting young athletes on their path to a promising career and to qualifying for the YOG: The Youth Olympic Games represent an important step in the development process of tomorrow’s champions. The NOCs are involved from the very start thanks to the programmes available, which focus on the identification, qualification and preparation of their young athletes;
• supporting athletes in successfully moving from the regional or continental level to the world stage: Continental and Regional Games represent a great opportunity for many NOCs to witness their athletes and teams winning medals. Participation in these Games is a key factor in reaching the highest level. By investing in these athletes at an intermediate level, Olympic Solidarity fills the gap between the youth and elite levels;
• supporting athletes who had to flee their home country by enabling them to compete as refugee athletes;
• supporting sport development in various countries on a large scale by assisting them in expanding their national sport system: Olympic Solidarity supports another key aspect of sport development by contributing to strengthening the national sports system of various countries. By offering this type of assistance to NOCs, Olympic Solidarity contributes to a significant and sustainable improvement in sport that will benefit all the people who are active in this field; and
• supporting elite teams for the Olympic Games through the Team Support Grant programme.

Manage, train, exchange: the keys to success

These priorities are achieved through NOC management programmes offering financial assistance and support for projects aimed at strengthening management. The programmes also offer several training opportunities for sports administrators and facilitate the exchange of information and experiences between NOCs.

Each year, the NOCs are eligible to receive an administrative subsidy to assist them with covering their running costs, and can submit projects aimed at improving various aspects of their management. Also available to the members and staff of NOCs and their affiliates are educational opportunities such as sport administrators courses, advanced sport management courses and scholarships for the Executive Masters in Sport Organisation Management (MEMOS). Moreover, NOC exchanges enable NOCs to learn from each other in order to find practical and tested solutions to the challenges they all face in their daily operations.

The NOC Forums programme adds targeted services to the range of World Programmes. These initiatives cover, among others, the regional forums, which promote concepts and ideas to groups of NOCs and facilitate the process of exchanging knowledge and experience among them; topical seminars for all NOCs or groups of NOCs that provide specific training according to their needs; and special requests from NOCs as a result of extraordinary or unexpected circumstances.

The educational aspect of Olympism and the Olympic values are the foundation of the unique character of the Olympic Movement. Sport thus represents a powerful tool and has the potential to play a fundamental role within society at large, particularly with respect to the younger generations.

The main factor behind the success and universality of the Games is the shared belief in a better world through sport in a spirit of respect, friendship, solidarity and fair play. The Olympic Values are at the core of our activities, and the 2025-2028 Plan includes three programmes entirely dedicated to them.

The aim of the Olympic Values programme is to ensure that NOCs are able to promote them at a national level, that they are integrated in everyday sports activities and celebrated, for example on Olympic Day.