Olympic Scholarships Available for Athletes

Bronze medallist, Yanakiev of Bulgaria.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has just released the guidelines for the Olympic Scholarship Programmes of Olympic Solidarity leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

National Olympic Committees are able to nominate elite athletes of all Olympic sports to assist in their preparation and qualification for the Beijing Olympics. Assistance is in the form of financial and technical aid.

The programme aims to promote universal representation at the Olympic Games and this means those candidates from National Olympic Committees that in the past have sent small delegations to the Olympics and have the most needs, will be prioritised.

In the last Olympic cycle, bronze medal winner of the men’s single, Ivo Yanakiev of Bulgaria was the most successful recipient of the Olympic Scholarship Programme. Fourth place finisher, also in the single, Santiago Fernandez of Argentina also received the scholarship.

The new scholarships will be decided by January 2006 with support continuing through until 31 August 2008.

You can view the English version of the document here. For further information on Olympic Solidarity or for contact details visit the official Olympic website