Olympia, 27 December 2022 - Every second year, the International Olympic Academy Participants Association holds its session on the premises of the International Olympic Academy, in Ancient Olympia.

Since 2013, the Hans Van Haute Fund was established to enable participants with limited financial means to attend the IOAPA session. More information about the fund and the scholarship is available below.

As you know, many businesses and organisations were hit hard during the pandemic. The IOAPA had to host its Session online, thus not opening the Hans van Haute Fund that year.

Meanwhile, our long standing friends at Magna Grecia, still had their olive oil stocks lingering for lack of tourism in the region. Some IOAPA members decided to devise a project to sell the oil in Hawaii (Kauai Island) and in State College, Pennsylvania, as well as a few other places in the United States, by ordering full cases of oil thereby reducing the shipping costs. This made the wonderful olive oil available at a reasonable cost. 

They also decided that 15% of the sales from the products would go back to the IOAPA to fund the Hans Van Haute Scholarship, enabling the IOAPA to bring one or two individuals from underrepresented nations back to the IOA. This initiative supports the IOAPA Declaration on Racism and Inclusivity that was issued in July 2020. 

The response to the project was overwhelming. From July to December of 2020, 49 cases (over 800 cans of 750 ml) flooded the Hawaiian Island of Kauai as well as some of the other islands, and also went to Pennsylvania, California, Kentucky, Colorado raising over $3,000 for the scholarship fund.

“You can imagine how devastated and hopeless our family and workers were when our farm had to close. The IOAPA Magna Grecia project created such a beacon of light for us here in Olympia, even reaching as far as our local post office who were quite busy with all of the boxes that we shipped. Each tin of oil and each box was so lovingly prepared. We felt such gratitude to these people halfway around the world that bought olive oil from us and helped us stay positive through the pandemic. Our bond with IOAPA is one of our strongest and we are so pleased to have contributed to the Hans van Haute Scholarship. We look forward to welcoming the HvH scholarship winners and our IOAPA friends to Magna Grecia in 2023.” - Franca Magrini

With the results of this wonderful project, the IOAPA Executive Board is honoured to open the call for applications for the Hans Van Haute Scholarship for the 2023 IOAPA Session.

All documents and questions shall be submitted to hvh.ioapa@gmail.com by 31st January, 2023.

Additional information available at IOAPA Hans van Haute.

Magna Grecia, a family owned Agritourism farm and restaurant which has been operating successfully near Olympia, Greece since 2010 catering to cruise ship tours and land tour companies.  Since 2011, the IOAPA members attending the Session in Olympia have visited the farm for an evening of food, wine entertainment. The partnership between our two entities has been strong ever since.  

The International Olympic Academy Participants Association (IOAPA) is a volunteer organisation whose members have the Olympic Movement at heart. We strive to foster an international and multicultural Olympic fellowship of IOA past participants, providing tools and resources to facilitate Olympic education and support Olympism worldwide.

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For additional inquiries:
Please contact the IOAPA directly info@ioapa.org