Olympic Solidarity is the channel through which broadcast revenue reaches National Olympic Committees. The plan for 2025–2028 is USD 650 million, about ten per cent above the previous cycle, and the argument about whether that is a lot depends entirely on how it is divided.
| Line | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| World Programmes | USD 266m | 41% |
| Continental Programmes | USD 222m | 34% |
| Games participation subsidies | USD 119m | 18% |
| Administration | USD 43m | 7% |
What each line actually pays for
- World Programmes — athlete scholarships, coach education, committee development and administration capacity, distributed on criteria rather than by committee size.
- Continental Programmes — managed by the continental associations, which decide their own priorities within the envelope. This is the line where the five continents diverge most in how the money is used.
- Games participation subsidies — the cost of getting a delegation to the Games at all: travel, accommodation and entry support.
- Administration — running the programmes.
The number inside the number
Athlete support rose 16 per cent, to USD 66 million. That is the line an athlete can actually be paid from, and it is roughly a tenth of the plan. Anyone citing 650 million as the sum the movement spends on athletes is citing the wrong figure by an order of magnitude; the other lines pay for the structures around them.
Why the split is read wrong so often
Because two different things are described with the same word. «Distributed to National Olympic Committees» covers both money a committee may spend as it chooses and money that exists only as a programme it may apply to. A committee's realistic expectation is a share of a programme, not a transfer.
What the money does not decide
Eligibility and recognition. A committee's funding does not protect it if its autonomy is compromised: recognition can be suspended or withdrawn under the Charter regardless of what the distribution plan says, as set out in A suspended NOC is not a banned team. Nor does it decide who hosts: that process changed separately, and is described in How an Olympic host is chosen without a vote.
Where this is written: the Olympic Solidarity plan for 2025–2028, olympics.com/ioc/olympic-solidarity. Shares are quoted as published; no figures here are computed.