International projects

EUROPEAN PROJECTS – COC AS COORDINATOR

AS SUSTAINABLE AS POSSIBLE - ASAP

Under the leadership of the Czech NOC, co-financed by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union, and supported by the IOC, the project brought together six National Olympic Committees (NOCs) from Europe to work jointly work on embedding sustainability in their operations, activities and events.

The three-year project (2020-2022) enabled its partner organisations to take great strides on this journey. With the support of their mentors (NOCs of Denmark, Finland and Germany), the mentees (NOCs of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) successfully developed their sustainability strategies and are in the process of implementation.

The Czech Olympic Committee’s Executive Committee approved the very first Sustainability Strategy of the organisation at the end of 2021.  The Strategy represents the COC’s commitment to continuous improvement in all activities, projects and initiatives. It provides a nine-year framework and roadmap for transforming the organisation towards greater sustainability and accountability.

With the adoption of the Strategy and its Implementation plan, and with the establishment of its first Sustainability Commission, the COC has joined the still rather “exclusive club” of NOCs, which approach sustainability as a strategic and long-term objective embedded throughout their operations, events and activities. 

Through the exchange of good practises and experiences and intensive cooperation with the IOC, mentor NOCs, too, moved forward with their sustainability activities and that both internally and externally while working with their member organisations and stakeholders.

To help other sport organisations approach sustainability in a strategic manner, the project partners developed a guidance document – ASAP Roadmap – which presents a process-based framework for the creation of a Sustainability Strategy. The text is accompanied by a number of useful tools (ASAP Toolbox), which further facilitate the process.

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EUROPEAN WEEK OF SPORT

The European Week of Sport (EWoS) initiative is part of the European Commission’s overall policy aimed at increasing the level of participation in sport and physical activity in the EU and beyond. It aims to promote sport and physical activity across Europe, generate new activities and build on already existing successful initiatives in the European, national, regional or local context.

The EWoS is organised every year on 23 – 30 September and is coordinated, at national level, by National Coordinating Bodies, whose activities are supported by the Erasmus + Programme. The COC has been a national coordinator for the Czech Republic since 2015. Since then, it has developed the initiative into a regular fixture on the calendar of many sport and physical activity organisations as well as individuals. To make the EWoS as successful as possible, it cooperates with a number of sport organisations and builds on its own activities such as the Sazka Olympic School Sport Programme, Versatility Badge Finals or Olympic Values Education programme.

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SPORT PARKS INSPIRED BY OLYMPICS

Initiated and coordinated by the Czech Olympic Committee, the two-year project (2017-2018) brought together experts from 7 National Olympic Committees (NOCs)- Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Slovenia - and 1 regional authority (South Bohemia, CZ) with the aim to create an interactive web based handbook, which would provide NOCs and other organisations with recommendations, guidelines, case studies and examples of good practice for the development, organisation, evaluation and sustainability of Olympic Festivals and similar events.

The Handbook helps organisers create the perfect space for sports enthusiasts, no matter the size of the event. Collected and logically arranged information provides them with a comprehensive rule of thumb with all the recommendations, possible pitfalls and solutions.

The project and the content of the Handbook served as a basis for the creation of IOC’s Olympic Festival Manual and with it the global development of the Olympic Festivals initiative.

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EUROPEAN PROJECTS – COC AS PARTNER

ONGOING PROJECTS

• GAMES - Guidance to Achieve More Equal leadership in Sport (2022-2024): The main objective of the project coordinated by the EOC EU Office is to improve gender equality in the key leadership and decision-making positions of National Olympic Committees. In the framework of the project, the Czech Olympic Committee will work on a gender equality policy and initiatives with focus on improving gender equality in elected bodies of the organisation.
• ATHLETES 4 SOCIETY (2021-2023): Led by Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the project aims to inspire, support and stimulate sports organisations to increase public value of sport and that through the development of policies, campaigns or programmes, which successfully engage athletes in creating a positive societal impact.
• OCEAN - The “Olympic Committees of Europe Approaching Climate Neutrality” (OCEAN) project aims at helping partner National Olympic Committee measure the carbon footprint of their operations and develop and start implementing carbon reduction plans. An active involvement in the project will help the Czech Olympic Committee implement a number of environmental sustainability-related actions and objectives outlined in its Sustainability Strategy 2030.

PAST PROJECTS

• PlayIn Together (2019-2022): The project focuses on the promotion of Olympic Values through physical activities in schools. COC’s Sazka Olympic School Sport Programme team uses the methodology developed in the framework of the project to enhance the School Sport Programme activities.
• GloKnoCo (2019-2022): Coordinated by Palacky University in Olomouc, the Global Sport for Development and Peace Knowledge Collaborative project aims to contribute to innovation in the area of sport studies and development studies. COC has brought a sport diplomacy dimension to the project.
• POINTS (2019-2021) – The project, which was led by the EOC EU Office, had for its objective the improvement of integrity of sport organisations, thanks to, principally, the establishment of a network of Single Points of Contact for Sports Integrity and their training. 
• SUCCESS (2016-2017) – Coordinated by the Croatian Olympic Committee, and led at national level by the COC, the project provided 8 women from Czech sport federations with the opportunity to gain new skills and experiences, improve their knowledge, and establish new contacts by following a year-long European-level sport management training and mentoring programme.

COC’S PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES WITH INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION

OLYMPIC FESTIVALS

Emotions, enthusiasm, passion – this is what the Olympic Games bring. Every sports fan should be able to experience this extraordinary event. This is why the Czech Olympic Committee created the Olympic Festival - formerly the Olympic Park - project. The aim is to bring the atmosphere of the Olympic Games to the Czech Republic, to promote Olympic values and ideals in society, and to encourage (especially young) people to do sport as part of a healthy lifestyle.

The first edition was held in 2014. The Sochi-Letná Park welcomed tens of thousands of visitors who could try out various sports and cheer; the atmosphere was often electrifying. Since then, the Olympic parks and later Olympic Festivals have spread to several locations in the Czech Republic, with as many as four during the 2016 Rio Games.

The Czech Olympic Committee is proud that the International Olympic Committee has taken over the project in 2017 (see above - Sport Parks Inspired by the Olympics) and turned it into a global initiative. While in 2018, only a handful Olympic Festivals were organised in Europe, in 2021, during the Tokyo 2020 Games, the initiative has reached a global level with Australia or Cap Verde joining.

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Master of Public Administration in SPORT DIPLOMACY

In 2016, the Czech Olympic Committee partnered with the Slovak Olympic and Sports Committee, Prague University of Economics and Business and other institutional partners to launch the very first professional education and training programme on Sport Diplomacy. Since then the programme has welcomed four successful cohorts of 20 participants representing Czech and Slovak sport federations and other sport organisations. In 2021, the programme was officially accredited “Master of Public Administration (MPA).

The main objective of the programme is to strengthen the representation of the Czech and Slovak sport movement in international sport organisations and to succeed in promoting its interests in these structures. Equally important is its intention to train participants to be able to contribute positively to the development of their own organisations, and to become excellent and effective representatives of these organisations within international sport structures.

Participants acquire knowledge and build skills in fields related both to the running and governance of sport organisations (finance and management, marketing, communications) and to sport diplomacy and international relations (international sport movement, negotiations, diplomatic protocol etc.).

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