Olympic scholarships to prepare athletes for future games
The Namibia National Olympic Committee (NNOC) announced the recipients of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games and 2018 Youth Olympic Games scholarships respectively on Wednesday.
Nine scholarships have been awarded to assist athletes to attend qualification events in order for them to qualify for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games while seven scholarships will make provision for athletes to train at high performance facilities to enable them to qualify for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.
Athletes representing the Archery, Athletics, Boxing, Cycling, Equestrian, Gymnastics, Rowing, Triathlon, Swimming and Wrestling Federations will form part of the scholarships. The monetary value for the Tokyo 2020 scholarship consists of US$715 per month for each athlete, while US$5 500 per athlete has been granted to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games.
Athletes were screened according to the international criteria set by Olympic Solidarity that required individual athletes to practice at an international level in a sport included on the Summer Olympic Programme. Other criteria required athletes to technically demonstrate and prove their potential to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, abide by the standards of sporting ethics as established by the Olympic Charter and the International Olympic Committee, abide by the World Anti-Doping Code and have never been convicted of an anti-doping rule violation.
The NNOC’s Secretary General, Joan Smit stated that the Olympic Committee would closely monitor the progress and results of every athlete on a regularly basis and reassess the athlete’s suitability to the programme.
“As per the requirements set out by Olympic Solidary, the NNOC is obligated to submit quarterly evaluation reports, providing a true account of the athlete’s progress and their chances of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Games,” said Smit.
Athletes are allowed to utilize the scholarship to fund attendance to appropriate training facilities, a coach specialized in the relevant sporting discipline, regular medical and scientific assistance and control, accidental and illness insurance, boarding and lodging, pocket money, limited travel costs for the athlete to participate in relevant Olympic qualification competitions.
Olympic scholarships commenced on the 1 September and will only be renewed periodically, provided that athletes qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Smit also provided an update on the international competitions taking place in 2018, stating that the Commonwealth Games will take place at the Gold Coast, Queensland in Australia from 4- 15 April 2018, African Youth Games will take place from 17 – 27 July 2018 in Algiers and the Youth Olympic Games from 6-18 October 2018 in Buenos Aires.
The list of scholarship recipients are as follows: TOKYO 2020 SCHOLARSHIPS: Maike Helga Diekman: Rowing, Jonas Junias Jonas: Boxing, Matias Hamunyela: Boxing, Tristan De Lange: Cycling, Jean-Paul Burger: Triathlon, Nestori Thomas: Boxing and Tryagain Ndevelo: Boxing
YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES 2018 SCHOLARSHIPS: Adrian Grobler: Archery, Sade de Sousa: Athletics, Ivan Geldenhuys: Athletics, Alexander Miller: Cycling, Nadine Fleming: Equestrian, Lance Potgieter: Gymnastics, Heleni Stergiadio: Swimming, Ronan Wantenaar: Swimming and Hafeni Asino Wrestling.
