Athletes and Entourage

Entourage programmes

In 2025, Olympic Solidarity Entourage programmes pursued their mission of supporting in various fields and at different levels of their careers.

• The Technical Courses for Coaches and Athletes’ Entourage Members (TCC) were instrumental in supporting coaches and the athletes’ entourage members. TCC provide short-term training for nationally recognised coaches and athletes’ entourage, strengthening their skills and sport-specific expertise to better support athletes and meet NOCs’ educational needs. In total, 225 Technical Courses for Coaches were organised last year across 124 NOCs, upskilling more than 7,200 coaches. The courses covered 38 different sports, with an additional 22 courses dedicated to sports sciences.

  As for the Olympic Scholarship for Coaches programme, it is intended to provide training for coaches in sport sciences or with sport specific content, and strengthen the national sports system. In 2025, the programme supported 400 coaches from 148 NOCs, specialising in 39 sports.

• There are two programmes aimed at reinforcing the development of a robust global network for athlete representation, and making sure that athletes’ voices are heard within the NOC: NOC Athletes’ Commission Activity Grant and the Continental Athletes’ Forum. Olympic Solidarity received requests for support via the NOC Athletes’ Commission Activity Grant from 124 NOCs in 2025. It supported three Continental Athletes’ Forums that took place in Africa, Asia, and Europe, bringing together a total of 139 NOCs.

• Athlete Career Transition (ACT): Olympic Solidarity’s Athlete Career Transition (ACT) programme provides technical and financial support to NOCs to help Olympians prepare for life after sport. This includes assistance with education, career planning, and entrepreneurship opportunities, such as the Athlete365 Business Accelerator course. Athletes from 82 NOCs, including a refugee athlete, took part in one of the 157 activities of this programme in 2025.  Among these activities, the Athlete Career Transition Course in Sports Ethics and Integrity (ACTSI) programme is a new bachelor programme launched by the University of KU Leuven in Belgium, with the support of Olympic Solidarity. It is open to students interested in governance, ethics, philosophy and law who do not yet hold a bachelor’s degree. A pilot phase started after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with a second cohort graduating in 2025.

Sport Development programmes

To support NOCs in developing the next generation of athletes, Olympic Solidarity provides four levels of support, in collaboration with International and National Federations, and key partners. These programmes cover the full athlete pathway, from developing national sports systems and nurturing emerging talent to supporting elite preparation and identifying young athletes with long‑term potential.

As the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games approached, NOCs logically focused much of their attention on Youth Athlete Development Programmes. Nonetheless, two additional sport development programmes play a key role in the long‑term development of both the NOC and sport at national level and are frequently implemented either in advance of, or alongside, these initiatives.

• Development of National Sports System (DNSS): Through this programme, NOCs are supported in strengthening their coaching structures and sports systems by implementing medium- or long-term action plans across one or more Olympic sports. In 2025, support was provided to 96 projects submitted by 78 NOCs.
• Support Grant for Continental Athletes: The Support Grant for Continental Athletes enables NOCs to strengthen the preparation of continental‑level athletes for world, continental and regional multi‑sport events, supporting their pathway towards the Olympic Games. By the end of 2025, the programme had been used by 138 NOCs.

Youth Athlete Development

In 2025, many NOCs actively prepared their young athletes for Dakar 2026 and beyond through a range of support options made available to them.

• Identification and training of young athletes, an option chosen by several NOCs, enabling them to implement targeted projects focused on early talent detection and structured athlete development. In 2025, this support helped strengthen national pathways for youth athletes.
• Support for athletes aiming to participate in high-performance pathway events for the Summer and Winter Youth Olympic Games. In 2025, 27 NOCs selected this option to help young athletes gain essential international experience ahead of Dakar 2026.
• Training opportunities delivered by International Federations – In 2025, 30 IFs offered youth-focused training activities to 322 national federations through camps, mini competitions and technical development initiatives.

Olympic Solidarity support on the road to Dakar 2026

The story about 3x3 basketball illustrates one of many projects supported by the Youth Athlete Development Programme, with the programme funding similar projects in athletics, badminton, fencing,