Dual careers (popularly known as dual career) are the bridge between sport and an athlete's professional life after the end of their sporting career. A bridge that combines two goals, fulfilling athletic performance and caring for the professional future. We know that the combination of these two worlds can be very difficult on a daily basis for athletes. Through the European project 'Olympic Committees for Dual Career' with the acronym OCDC, our goal is to contribute to the achievement of these two goals.
The OCDC project involves, under the coordination of the Olympic Committee of Poland, the Olympic Committees of Greece, Turkey, Lithuania and Slovenia, as well as the European Network of Innovation and Knowledge (EUIC) specializing in research in the field of sport.
The OCDC project has as a general objective to promote knowledge and understanding of dual careers in athletes competing in Olympic sports and national sports federations.
The specific objectives of the project are to record and understand the issues of dual careers and the needs of Olympic athletes (young and older) based on a survey, which will take place in the 5 countries where the project will be implemented. The specific objectives of the project include the analysis of best practices and the creation and pilot implementation of a Single Contact Point for dual career issues that will serve the National Olympic Committee and a National Sports Federation in each of the participating countries. Finally, the project aims to create a roadmap in the form of a handbook, on the basis of which the Single Point of Contact will operate, as well as to raise the awareness of athletes about the importance of dual careers during the various stages of championships, through their participation in massively open online courses.