The Athlete365 Business Accelerator is helping athletes to develop their business ideas and to support their post-career entrepreneurship.
The career transition can be tough for athletes. Fortunately, elite athletes have potential to become entrepreneurs and innovators, since they have acquired useful skills during their athlete career like leadership, team spirit and resilience.
Helping Olympians and athletes with career transition and dual careers is one of the main focuses of Memorandum of Understanding which was signed 6th October during the Olympism Action Forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between the IOC and Yunus Centre, chaired by Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2006.
The Memorandum of Understanding continues the demonstration of the IOC´s commitment to support athletes and Olympians during and after their sporting career. The Memorandum is in line with the recommendation 18 of Olympic Agenda 2020 as well as the IOC Athletes´ Commission Strategy and it is a logical continuation in athlete development done worldwide.
The concept of the programme is developed in close collaboration with the World Olympian Association and it will form the Athlete365 Business Accelerator and provide excellent opportunities to athletes, through three main phases: Engagement, Incubation and Acceleration.
First stage consists of online course, which is available for free for all athletes around the world through the Athlete365 platform. After completing the first stage, the selected athletes will receive further knowledge and mentorship on entrepreneurship through two rounds of workshops that are delivered by experts and specialists in the field. In the Acceleration phase, athletes selected on the basis of their project proposals, will receive personalised and dedicated coaching and mentorship for six months to execute their project.
The IOC President Thomas Bach, Olympic champion in fencing, said “Athletes are at the heart of the Olympic Games and we support them in many ways. The Athlete365 Business Accelerator is another important initiative by the IOC which aims to help athletes to build a second career besides their career in sport. The IOC wants to create new opportunities for athletes and we are delighted to offer this in partnership with Professor Muhammad Yunus and the Yunus Centre.”
“All humans are born entrepreneurs; we want to help the athletes to unleash this capacity. They have an exciting life ahead of them: they can become successful entrepreneurs for themselves; they can also create a social business and solve people´s problems. This is yet another chance for them to catch the attention of the entire world,” Professor Yunus said.
Since 2005, the IOC has put in place a programme dedicated to athletes´ career transition, named Athlete365 Career+. The programme is delivered in cooperation with The Adecco Group and it provides educational resources and focuses on education, life skills and employment. The Athlete365 Career+ also offers career development, helps athletes to identify existing skills and assists in finding jobs and internships. The programme has reached more than 35,000 athletes from over 185 countries.
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Source and photo: International Olympic Committee
