06 February 2025 - New Zealand freestyle skier Finley Melville Ives relies on his Olympic Solidarity scholarship to help him concentrate on training. “Coming from New Zealand, we travel a lot, and it can get pretty expensive, so the funding definitely relieves a bit of stress,” he explains. “I can focus on my skiing without having to think about finance as much.” As we celebrate one year to go until the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) shines a spotlight on the 418 athletes from 84 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) who are currently receiving Olympic Solidarity scholarships to support their journey to the Games.
Olympic Scholarships for Athletes - Milano Cortina 2026
Bringing New Zealand onto the Olympic Winter Games podium
With the support of Olympic Solidarity scholarships, five athletes at the Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Gangwon 2024 won a total of six medals. Among them was Melville Ives, who won a silver medal in freeski halfpipe.
Fellow New Zealand freestyle skier Luke Harrold also shone at Gangwon 2024, winning a gold medal in the men’s freestyle skiing half-pipe and a bronze medal in big air. Harrold is one of five athletes from New Zealand receiving funding on the road to Milano Cortina 2026, contributing to the growing popularity of winter sports among young people in the Pacific nation.
“It’s been so important,” says Harrold, who was awarded his scholarship at the end of 2023. “It’s not easy competing in a sport like this; there are a lot of logistics and it’s not cheap. So, to have that funding is really amazing.”
With a focus on those with the greatest need of assistance, the monthly grants help cover training and equipment costs, as well as travel to, and participation in, qualification events.
Melville Ives, Harrold and their fellow freestyle skier and scholarship-holder Luca Harrington are all aiming for the podium at Milano Cortina 2026, bolstered by their strong performances so far this winter season. These athletes aim to follow in the footsteps of two former scholarship-holders from New Zealand who marked Olympic history at Beijing 2022. Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott became the first-ever New Zealand athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games, and her success was followed by compatriot Nico Porteous, who won gold in the men’s freestyle skiing halfpipe.
Supporting athletes in a new Olympic sport
The first scholarships for Milano Cortina were awarded in 2023, and the number of athletes receiving support has grown steadily since then. Scholarship-holders are competing in six sports: biathlon, bobsleigh, luge, skating, skiing and ski mountaineering.
Milano Cortina 2026 is bringing ski mountaineering to the Olympic Winter Games for the first time, featuring the same five events that first appeared on the Olympic programme at the Winter YOG Lausanne 2020. This fast-growing sport has roots in Italy, and the Olympic Solidarity scholarship programme is helping to develop the sport further by supporting athletes around the world.
Spain’s Ana Alonso Rodriguez and Oriol Cardona Coll are two ski mountaineering athletes to have received scholarships for Milano Cortina 2026. With this support, they have continued to excel in their sport, and their recent victory in the Mixed Relay World Cup race in Andorra at the start of 2025 is an encouraging milestone on their journey to the Games.
Olympic Solidarity athletes made history at Beijing 2022
The benefits of the Olympic Solidarity scholarship programme were evident at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. A notable 55 per cent of scholarship-holders qualified for the Games, amounting to the participation of 236 individual scholarship-holders representing 67 NOCs, five continents and five sports. Altogether, they won 10 medals.
Some scholarship-holders made history at Beijing without even reaching the podium. Richardson Viano, for example, became Haiti’s first-ever winter Olympian, and Aruwin Salehhuddin was the first-ever Malaysian woman to compete at the Olympic Winter Games.
Helping athletes achieve their goals
Olympic Solidarity aims to level the playing field, ensuring that athletes from all backgrounds have a chance of competing on the Olympic stage. A support programme is also in place for NOCs with larger delegations of athletes, offering flexible use of a fixed budget to support their athletes.
All of Olympic Solidarity’s programmes are aimed at developing and promoting sport worldwide, and offering assistance to all ensures true universality and diversity at the Olympic Games.
