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Olympic Solidarity manages the share of the broadcast rights from the Olympic Games which belongs to the NOCs and redistributes these funds through programmes offered to all NOCs recognised by the IOC.The aim of Olympic Solidarity, as set out by the Olympic Charter, is to organise assistance to NOCs, in particular those which have the greatest need of it. This assistance takes the form of programmes elaborated jointly by the IOC and the NOCs, with the technical assistance of the international federations, if necessary.In the 2013-16 Olympic Solidarity funding cycle, US$165 million One of the key benefits to the World Rugby family as a result of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) 2009 decision to return rugby to the Olympic programme was that, for the first time, national rugby federations were eligible to collaborate with their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to access Olympic Solidarity support.was made available under the World Programmes fund to cover and reinforce all areas of sport development including:• Technical courses for coaches• Team support grants• Development of national sports structures• Olympic scholarships for coachesAs World Rugby looked to make good on its promise of delivering an Olympic rugby tournament the rugby and Olympic family would be proud of in 2016, one of the key strategic goals of the federation’s Strategic Plan 2010-20 was to optimise Olympic participation. Among a range of key performance indicators to measure the success of this goal was that support from Olympic bodies and governments was increased.To help achieve this, World Rugby worked closely with stakeholders in its member unions and regional associations prior to the launch of the 2013-16 Olympic Solidarity funding cycle to educate and inform them about the opportunities available. This enabled them to capitalise on the growing excitement around rugby sevens making its Olympic debut at Rio 2016 as NOCs saw the potential rugby offered to their sport development programmes and Olympic ambitions MAXIMISING THE OLYMPIC EFFECTPARTICIPATE | OLYMPIC SOLIDARITY60 WORLD RUGBY YEAR IN REVIEW 2016