The foundation is committed to supporting young people. It supports their individual careers with passion, team spirit and respectful interaction in sports and in society. The programmes help young people who are passionate about sports on neutral Swiss soil, regardless of gender, social, ethnic, political, or religious affiliation. They promote health and well-being, quality education and the reduction of inequalities in line with the UN development goals.
Like Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), the founder of the modern Olympic Games, we are convinced that sports can help people surpass themselves and get closer and understand each other despite differences.
Top performance requires doing something with passion–both in sports and everyday life. Developing passion means being enthusiastic about something or working towards it. If you do this with verve and the intention to do your best, top performance can be the result.
The ideal of friendship aims to promote rapprochement and mutual understanding between peoples. Thanks to solidarity, team spirit, joy and optimism in sports, this value is intended to create a peaceful and connecting world where people live together in friendship, regardless of their origin, race, gender, religion, or political conviction.
Respect and responsibility include respect for oneself, others, and the environment. Respectful interaction is not just decency but an expression of a partnership based on equal footing, which creates trust and security and enables independent thinking and creative learning. In addition, self-guided learning promotes taking responsibility for one’s own understanding and actions: the ability to set one’s own goals, define paths and find suitable means and methods that make sense for one’s learning path and possibilities. Finally, the ability to take responsibility for the community and to work for the community and the environment should be promoted.
Humanity and respectful treatment is an essential principle of our mission, just as it is for the Red Cross founded by Henry B. Dunant (1828-1910). We promote mutual understanding, friendship, and lasting peace among all peoples.
Respectful interaction includes respect for oneself, other people, and the environment, different cultures and generations, as well as social and cultural values. Respectful interaction is an expression of a partnership based on equal footing, which creates trust and security.
In addition, this humanitarian orientation makes a sustainable contribution to reducing poverty, enabling a healthy life, reducing inequality, combating climate change, and ensuring education and lifelong learning for everyone. With our programs, we endeavour to assume our responsibility for health and well-being, for high-quality education, to empower young women for self-determination and to reduce inequalities, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Neutrality refers to the principle of independence, self-determination, impartiality, and non-discrimination. A fundamental aspect of neutrality is independence from prejudice and an openness to different perspectives and opinions. It is thus closely linked to the ideal of objectivity. The notion is that a neutral position allows for critical detachment and the ability for reflective analysis, thus facilitating more equitable decision-making. Our programmes support young people who are passionate about sports on neutral Swiss soil, regardless of gender, social, ethnic, political, or religious affiliation.
These five principles form the framework of our value system and guide the foundation Coubertin meets Dunant. Our goal is to accompany the careers of young people by providing solutions that are as individual as possible. We encourage people to enable their essence to break through and take their dreams, talents and potential seriously. They should be able to pursue their passions diligently and grow into personalities who actively shape our future. We support passionate, athletic young people from enemy nations (United Programme) and young elite sports talents with refugee status (Refugee Programme) in their sport at the Talent-Campus Bodensee. At the same time, we offer them access to training and further education, with the prospect of a degree, so they have the same opportunities as our domestic athletes.