IOC Athlete MOOC to benefit Olympians worldwide

9 | 5 | 2014

The IOC in cooperation with the IOC Athletes’ Commission (AC) and Entourage Commissions has launched an online platform that will deliver free, engaging, educational content to a worldwide audience of Olympians and Athletes.

The launch comes at a time when the IOC, IOC AC and WOA are working more closely together for the benefit of all Olympians.

Known as the IOC Athlete MOOC [Massive Open Online Course], the platform enables athletes to combine the challenge of pursuing their education whilst focussing on their sporting careers.  The platform exposes athletes to different topics to help them navigate their post competitive career path.

The educational tool brings together Olympic champions, world-renowned coaches, leading academics and inspiring leaders and features academic lectures delivered by prominent institutions from around the world, video insights, online live events, discussion forums and various learning resources. Currently there are three new exclusive courses entitled Smarter Eating for Better Performance, Can Champions Be Made and Athlete Career Transition. New courses will be launched every month along with live chats with Olympic athletes and leading academics.

The Athlete Career Transition course features IOC Athletes’ Commission Vice Chair, Olympian and Harvard graduate, Angela Ruggiero; former US boxing champion, Angel Bovee, hired in 2011 by Adecco and the United States Olympic Committee to manage the Team USA Career Programme; Vincent Defrasne, Biathlon Olympic Champion; and Barbara Kendall, New Zealand’s boardsailing Gold Medallist and a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, and the IOC Commissions for Women and Sport as well as Sport and Environment.

Speaking about the launch, Joël Bouzou, WOA President, said:

“The WOA welcomes this fantastic new platform that the IOC has launched and I am sure that it will have many benefits for Olympians all around the world. It is a key goal of the WOA to help athletes transition from competition to a life after sport and the IOC Athlete MOOC will help this process.

“By working closely with the IOC and the Athletes’ Commission we can go even further to support all Olympians globally. We have a number of projects that we hope to roll out in the coming months and with continued hard work from all parties we can go even further to support Olympians and bring Olympic values to life in communities around the world.”