(ATR) The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) wants help from the Greek business community in funding and supporting athletes in their quest to make the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.
HOC President Spyros Capralos called for support of the "Adopt an Athlete on the Way to Tokyo" program during his address at the HOC’s awards ceremony.
"I invite the Greek entrepreneurial community, deeply aware of the immense charity work they are engaged in, to assist the Greek sport heroes," Capralos said, as quoted in a HOC release.
"They are young people who represent our country in the best possible way and make Greeks all over the world brim over with joy and pride."
The funds raised by the "adoption program" are directly allocated to the athletes. The previous version of the program ahead of the 2016 Summer Games proved successful, with all six of the country’s medals in Rio won by "adopted" athletes.
Capralos also wants to offer athletes educational incentives as they bid for Olympic glory "by allocating credit points for admission to schools of higher education of their own preference, with extra credit points when it comes to Olympic sports. Let us allow the Olympic winners to serve the public sector or the armed forces during their sports career".
Later this month, Caprolos says the HOC will submit an amended version of its statutes to the deputy minister of sport, aimed at removing some of the government bureaucracy tied to "a number of administration/management issues such as the participation of sports teams in compeititions abroad."
The deputy sports minister will be in charge of getting the bill passed into law.
Prizes awarded by the HOC at the ceremony included honoring the male and female athletes who excelled in European and World Championships in 2017.
The President of Greece Prokopios Pavlopoulos was among those awarded the HOC’s Trophy of Excellence "Dimitrios Vikelas" for his "practical, unreserved and continuous support to Greek sport".
Written by Gerard Farek
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