Spanish NOC, Telefonica Fund Spanish Athletes -- NOCs News

The Spanish Olympic Committee and Telefónica announced the creation of Podium, a scholarship for Spanish athletes, at a ceremony on Wednesday.

Thanks to Podium, eighty athletes from twenty associations will receive $1,900 per month for economic and technical aid. Selected athletes must be under 23 years of age and have competed in a prior Olympic Games.

José María Álvarez-Pallete, the CEO of Telefónica, said that the objective of Podium was to show what Spain has invested in young athletes.

"Podium is not simply giving scholarships and committing resources," Álvarez-Pallete said at Wednesday’s ceremony. "We want to show young people that society trusts them."

Alejandro Blanco, the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, went on to publicly recognize Telefónica’s support to Spanish sport.

Lustig Chosen for Israeli NOC

Gili Lustig was chosen as the new secretary general of the Olympic Committee of Israel this week. He will replace Efraim Zinger, who served as secretary general for 20 years.

Lustig spent 17 years as the director of Israel’s Elite Sports Division before he beat out eighteen other candidates for the position of secretary general.

"I really loved my previous position and I hope to build on that in this role," Lustig told the Jerusalem Post.

"We need to make sure with the sports ministry and the relevant associations that our athletes have the best conditions to prepare for [Rio 2016]."

Lustig plans to resign from his role as secretary general of the OCI after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

German Sports Alliance to Commemorate Munich Massacre

The German Sports Alliance has donated $30,000 for a space to commemorate the victims of the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

General director Michael Vesper announced that the commemorative space was "welcomed very much" after the DOSB meeting in Frankfurt on Tuesday.

According to Ludwig Spaenle, the Bavarian minister of education and the arts, Munich is not interested in opening a traditional museum, but rather establishing a public, open access pavilion in their Olympic park to honor victims. The space will be a part of the park until October 2016.

A Palestinian group known as Black September took 11 Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Olympics. Between September 5th and 6th, all 11 Israeli athletes were killed, as well as five terrorists and a West German police officer.

Written by Andrew Murrell

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.