Launched in 2021, the Digital Accelerator Program reached its fourth year with record participation from over 100 NOCs. With an expanding range of projects, 2024 marked a significant milestone in the program's growth and impact.

Digital Events

Partnership with Content Stadium 

During the first semester, NOCs received free access to this platform, enabling them to easily create visuals for their communications, especially during the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

Support for Paris 2024

Ahead of the Olympic Games, we released a practical handbook that provided NOCs with strategies and tactics to enhance their social media impact. It draws on lessons learned from Tokyo 2020, the industry expertise of Redtorch, and insights from the ANOC Social Media Dashboard.

After the Games, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the results through a comprehensive impact report, even comparing the Paris 2024 social media performance with the insights gathered after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. 

First Digital Communication Seminar

Social Media Verification Project

In partnership with Meta, we secured the official verification of 35 Instagram and Facebook NOC accounts, enabling them to showcase the coveted "blue tick" before Paris 2024.

After hosting the 3rd edition, ANOC supported the 4th edition of the DCSMS in Baku

In October 2024, Baku hosted the fourth Digital Communication and Social Media Seminar (DCSMS IV), uniting over 70 participants from 30 National Olympic Committees and 9 Athletes' Commissions.

A Dedicated Community

All these projects are shared and interconnected through a WhatsApp community of NOC communication professionals.

NOCs increasingly recognise the program's value. We are proud to witness the growth of participants and have decided to maintain this ambitious pace in 2025. Our goal: to equip NOCs with enhanced skills ahead of the 2027 Continental Games and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

2025 Agenda

We will kick off the year with a series of 5 webinars focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Aligned with the IOC's AI agenda, these sessions will provide NOCs with practical and accessible tools to boost their efficiency in digital communication and other areas of work, facilitating and increasing the day-to-day NOC activities productivity. The full 2025 program will be announced in the coming weeks.

The year 2024 was marked by two major events for the Olympic Movement: the Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon in January, followed by the iconic Summer Games in Paris. ANOC worked tirelessly to support NOCs on multiple levels and maximize their impact.

NOC Photo Program

Building on this success, and this time in partnership with the IOC and Getty Images, this service was offered to the NOCs with less that 10 athletes during Paris 2024. The results included over 4,800 photos downloaded by the 52 NOCs, more than 320 posts created in 16 days, and a total engagement of 270,000 interactions.

ANOC.tv Studio, an Innovative Service at Paris 2024

Paris 2024 also provided the opportunity to launch a new and groundbreaking service to enhance NOCs’ communications. Temporary video and photography studios were set up near the Paris Athletes’ Village. This initiative resulted in the creation of over 700 videos and 1,000 studio photos for 38 NOCs.

Ongoing Support

As always, ANOC provided daily support to NOCs during the Games and followed up with an official debrief held at our headquarters in Lausanne, involving 25 NOCs and the IOC. This session was key to collecting valuable feedback to further improve the services provided to NOCs and athletes in future editions.

Placing NOCs at the heart of

future Qualification Systems for LA 2028

ANOC remains dedicated to ensuring that the perspectives of NOCs are central to the development of future Qualification Systems. In 2025, we will actively gather feedback from NOCs regarding the Paris 2024 Qualification Systems.

This input will serve as the foundation for a comprehensive set of recommendations to be shared with International Federations and the IOC, aiming to enhance the development of the Los Angeles 2028 Qualification Systems with an emphasis on the insights of NOCs.

Compensation of the Carbon Emission Footprint of the XXVII ANOC General Assembly

The XXVII ANOC General Assembly in Cascais 2024 was marked by a series of impactful sustainability initiatives aimed at offsetting its environmental footprint and leaving a positive legacy.

Additionally, single-use items such as flags and branding fabrics were repurposed into tote bags, pencil cases, and laptop bags by Re.store, a Portuguese organisation promoting social and ecological sustainability. Leftover food was collected by Refood to support local communities, further reducing waste.

A partnership with Toyota enabled the use of electric and hybrid vehicles for part of the transportation operations, significantly reducing the event’s carbon emissions. These efforts highlight ANOC’s commitment to working with like-minded organisations to integrate sustainability into its operations and ensure the General Assembly left a lasting positive environmental impact.

OCEAN Project

ANOC welcomed participants of the OCEAN Project to its headquarters in Lausanne for the start of the third module, bringing together 18 European NOCs. This two-year programme, organized with the EOC EU Office, in collaboration with the Öko-Institut, the IOC and ANOC, aims to support NOCs in enhancing their sustainability efforts.

Discussions focused on progress made and challenges faced since the project's launch in January 2023. A Carbon Emission calculator for European NOCs will be launched by the OCEAN Project before the end of 2024. Thanks to the support of ANOC and the IOC, the tool will be made available to all NOCs of the world in 2025

ANOC Partners with SeaTheFuture to advance Sustainability and Ocean protection

ANOC has announced a strategic partnership with SeaTheFuture, a leading ocean conservation organization, reaffirming its commitment to environmental sustainability. 

This partnership builds on ANOC's ongoing collaboration with the Bali Blue Harmony project, which is engaged in vital coral restoration efforts. The goal is to integrate the Bali initiative into the SeaTheFuture network of projects, further amplifying its impact and fostering global cooperation in marine conservation. This initiative aligns with ANOC's commitment with the IUCN’s Sports for Nature framework.

In October 2024, we hosted the XXVII ANOC General Assembly in Cascais, bringing together the entire Olympic Movement for three days. More than 850 delegates representing 195 NOCs, 26 International Federations, as well as members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Solidarity, participated in this landmark event.

The program was dynamic and comprehensive, encouraging meaningful exchanges and the sharing of valuable experiences. It offered a platform to review ANOC’s ongoing projects, reflect on the highlights of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and plan for the key milestones ahead in the Olympic calendar.

A Milestone for ANOC

This edition marked a turning point for ANOC with the launch of a comprehensive partnership program. A total of 22 partners supported the event with services, products and financial support, benefiting from enhanced visibility through their involvement.

The ANOC Awards 2024: Celebrating the Heroes of Paris 2024

As an Olympic year, 2024 saw the return of the ANOC Awards to honor the best athletes of the Paris 2024 Games across 12 categories. For the first time, the event was broadcast live on over 29 channels, including RTP’s OTT services (Portugal’s national broadcaster), the EBU, and Olympic Channel.

A Day Focused on Key Topics

The third day featured three dedicated theme sessions:
•    The Olympic Programme, The Evolving Olympic Programme: The NOC Perspective
•    Safeguarding, Decoding Safeguarding: Effective Strategies for Safe Sport
•    The Olympic AI Agenda, Olympic AI Agenda: The future of AI for NOCs

2024 marked the launch of the ANOC Commercial Strategy. A deep review of the value of ANOC and the market opportunities culminated with the establishment of the ANOC marketing program, which closes the year with 2 gold partners and 1 bronze partner.

The contract with telecomm company XPlori provides the NOCs an opportunity to have access to accessible international roaming, but also to make financial gains by promoting the company in an affiliated marketing format. ANOC believes that there are different opportunities for the NOCs in this format of partnership and shall explore them further in 2025. 

Dr Robin Mitchell

ANOC President

1 - 2024 WAS A YEAR OF IMPACTFUL PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES SUPPORTING NOCS AND STRENGTHENING THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT. WHAT DO YOU SEE AS ANOC'S KEY ACHIEVEMENTS THIS YEAR, AND HOW DO THEY REFLECT ITS RESILIENCE AND MISSION?

As an Olympic year, 2024 was very important for the NOC family. A lot of ANOC’s focus was therefore on ensuring we provided NOCs with the very best support in the build-up to and during Paris 2024.

We aimed to develop projects and initiatives that would provide effective solutions to challenges we knew the NOCs faced.

A key priority was making sure NOCs were equipped with the skills and tools to be able to maximise the digital and social media opportunities that the Olympic Games presents – both in terms of promoting their athletes but also engaging their communities in Olympism.

We continued to deliver our ANOC Digital Accelerator Programme throughout the year with workshops and webinars, as well as the first ever ANOC Digital Communication Seminar, to allow NOCs to learn from, and share best practice. Our Paris 2024 Social Media Handbook also allowed NOCs to develop impactful social media strategies ahead of the Games. 

During Paris 2024 itself we partnered with the IOC to deliver the NOC Photo Progamme Paris 2024, which provided 37 NOCs with access to rights-free high-quality imagery, and the first ANOC.tv NOC Video Studio Project Paris 2024, which saw nearly 38 NOCs create compelling video content.

All of this together supported NOCs in producing outstanding performances on their digital channels during the Games.

2 - NOCS AND THEIR ATHLETES ARE CENTRAL TO THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT. WHY IS IT VITAL FOR ANOC TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING AND EMPOWERING THEM, AND HOW DOES THIS STRENGTHEN THE OLYMPIC ECOSYSTEM?

Connecting and empowering the voice of the NOCs is central to ANOC’s vision; it is our reason for being. We are continually looking at how we can improve that support for NOCs and their athletes to ensure we have the strongest NOC family.

As I said at our ANOC General Assembly in Cascais, a stronger ANOC and NOC family only strengthens the Olympic Movement. NOCs are a key pillar of the Olympic Movement. It is NOCs that prepare teams for the Olympic Games but also NOCs that ensure Olympism is promoted at a national level.

It is therefore essential that NOCs are empowered and that their voice is heard at the highest level of decision-making in the Olympic Movement. At ANOC we endeavor to represent NOC interests across these decision-making bodies and ensure that NOCs are empowered to operate as effectively as possible.

3 - THE ANOC AWARDS AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACHIEVED NEW LEVELS OF VISIBILITY AND ENGAGEMENT THIS YEAR. HOW DO YOU ENVISION THEIR EVOLUTION TO FURTHER UNITE AND SUPPORT THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT?

The ANOC General Assembly is an incredibly important forum to bring the world’s NOCs together to discuss key topics, share best practice and ultimately improve as an organization. We welcome the engagement from NOCs in Cascais which served to highlight how much we all care about ensuring ANOC is working as efficiently as possible for the benefit of all NOCs. We have taken the feedback on board and will ensure it is acted upon as we look ahead to the future of ANOC and the development of our new, collaborative strategic plan.

With NOCs from over 200 countries joined by the IOC, International Federations, OCOGs and partners, the General Assembly is a powerful gathering of the Olympic Movement and one that highlights the prominent role of the NOCs. 

While the General Assembly is an opportunity to discuss pressing issues and plan for the future, the ANOC Awards is an opportunity to celebrate the recent achievements of NOCs and their athletes. The ANOC Awards 2024, celebrated the best of Paris 2024 and the increased visibility of the ceremony was a testament to the award winners and their incredible performances this year. 

4 - WITH ANOC PREPARING ITS 2025–2028 STRATEGIC PLAN, WHAT PRIORITIES AND INNOVATIONS WILL ENSURE SUSTAINED SUPPORT FOR NOCS AND THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT?

Firstly, we want to hear from the NOCs. As was discussed during the General Assembly, it is important that NOCs have a voice in the future of ANOC. The strategic plan is therefore being developed in full consultation with the NOCs.

All NOCs have been encouraged to share their thoughts and priorities via an online questionnaire which will help guide our future direction of travel. NOCs have also been invited to apply to join a Working Group which will oversee the development of the strategic plan. The members of the Working Group will be selected based on their experience and continental representation will be respected.

This process will ensure that the priorities and innovations detailed in the new strategic plan are fully reflective of what the NOCs need.

REPLAY: XXVII ANOC GENERAL ASSEMBLY - CASCAIS 2024

Relive the highlights of the XXVII edition: the two days of the General Assembly, all the thematic sessions from the third day, and of course, the ANOC Awards featuring the full show and exclusive athlete interviews.