Here’s to a great 2026

31 | 12 | 2025

Happy New Year everyone,

2025 was, let’s call it, a mixed year with highs and lows, difficulties and successes and quite a few changes. Thank you all for your patience and understanding as we navigated all that the year threw at us. During 2025 we worked very hard to preserve our independence as democratically decided by you. Being independent is not incompatible with having a good, close working relationship with the IOC, which we now have again and which we have had for most of our existence.

That was 2025. For 2026, there is so much to look forward to.

The General Assembly on January 18th will give us a chance to all gather together to look back at the achievements of the past four years and to look forward to LA 2028. And a new President, Secretary General and Treasurer will be elected along with a new Executive Committee. I wish all the candidates the best of luck and will be there to help out, if requested, once my term of office ends at the close of the General Assembly.

Then there is the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina in February. The Games are what it is all about for us Olympians. New stars, new records, new friendships and of course, new OLYs. We will unveil the WOA activities during the Games soon. If you would like to host an online party during Milano-Cortina on our e-OLY House platform please contact the team at info@thewoa.org.

April will see the World Olympians Forum in-person in Monaco. The Istanbul edition will be a hard act to follow but I’m sure Monaco with its long history of hosting international events will be up to the task. The Forum is always a great place to share best practices, hear from experts and for us all to network and strengthen the Olympian community.

And in October and November there’s the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal. This will be an historic event as it is the first Olympic Games of any sort to be held in Africa. The YOG is the future of our Movement and usually produces some great sport, so don’t miss it. I would like to congratulate our Executive Committee member and former WOA Vice-President Amadou Dia Ba OLY for his role in helping secure the Games for Senegal and helping bring them to fruition.

Finally, a plea. You will recall that we asked you to help Jamaican Olympians rebuild after the hurricane. You have been generous so far. But they still need just over one thousand dollars to reach their target. Let’s kick-off 2026 by helping our fellow Olympians in Jamaica celebrate the new year in style. https://olympians.org/news/1951/help-jamaican-olympians-rebuild-after-the-hurricane/

Best Olympian regards to you and your families and friends for 2026.

Joël