IOC to spend half a billion dollars on its solidarity programme

The IOC said in a statement late Thursday its excutive board approved that the budget for development programmes will rise by 16 per cent from 2013-16 to US$509,285,000 in 2017-2020.
"This increase shows that the athletes remain at the heart of all our activity," IOC Olympic Solidarity director Pere Miro said.
"The huge worldwide success of the Olympic Games Rio 2016 also means that the Olympic Movement continues to enjoy a sound financial situation. This enables us to distribute more than half a billion dollars over the next four years to the National Olympic Committees(NOCs)."
The funds come from broadcast rights for the Rio Games and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
They are to help NOCs, "particularly those with the greatest needs," in areas ranging from athlete development to the training of coaches and sports administrators.
The 21 programmes include two new ones: an athletes' career transition programme to help athletes during their career for a life after retirement from sport; and assistance of refugee athletes who competed for the first time in Rio with big success.
"It was decided to create a dedicated programme that would provide NOCs with the opportunity to identify and support a small number of refugee athletes living in their countries to prepare and participate in international competitions," the IOC said.