“Olympic Committees for Dual Career” held its first transnational project meeting in Greece
The Hellenic Olympic Committee had the honour of hosting the first transnational project meeting of the European project “Olympic Committees for Dual Career” (OCDC) in its headquarters from 6 to 8 October 2022.
OCDC constitutes a two-year project, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union for Education, Training, Youth and Sport. Its main purpose is to promote dual career knowledge and understanding among athletes competing in Olympic sports and National Sports Federations.
On the first day of the meeting, the project partners – representatives of the National Olympic Committees of Greece, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Türkiye and the think tank ‘European Network for Innovation and Knowledge’ (EUNIK) – gathered in Athens, in order to discuss the upcoming project activities.
The partners held an open discussion on the content of the questionnaire, which is aimed at junior, senior and retired Olympic sports athletes. The goal of the survey is to identify the challenges athletes face in combining elite sport, education, and work as well as their needs and aspirations. Within the upcoming weeks, Olympic sports athletes will be invited through communication channels including social media, to respond to this survey, as this will lay the foundation for the project’s baseline study.
Based on the survey findings and best practices to be also identified by the participating NOCs, a roadmap for bridging the gap between the sporting field and athletes’ future professional lives will be developed. The partners engaged in a peer-to-peer exchange about the establishment of a Single Point of Contact on Dual Career within the 5 NOCs participating in the project.
The second day of the meeting was dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of dual careers and the digital tools that will be used in this direction.
Once again, partners expressed their enthusiasm and great expectations for the project and renewed their project meeting for April 2023 in Türkiye.
