The Lithuanian National Olympic Committee follows and implements the recommendations set out in the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Agenda 2020. The LNOC President Daina Gudzinevičiūtė is a member of the IOC Athletes’ Entourage Commission. She takes care of the second careers of athletes and their integration into the society and the job market after ending their athletic career.

Since 2016, the LNOC has been organizing the “Second Career” training courses for athletes. This specifically designed program is based on the agendas of the International Olympic Committee and the global recruitment agency Adecco. These training courses are aimed not only at young athletes but also at their more experienced colleagues. By employing the most modern tutoring methods, the program helps to reveal athletes’ strongest character traits and determine their personality types, introduces potential study sources, helps to identify current skills, and to apply them in other areas.

“Second Career” training course 2018:

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During the practical part of the training course, athletes are taught how to establish and maintain connections, prepare their resumes, and get ready for and behave during a job interview.

In 2016-2019, the “Second Career” training course took place in Vilnius, with the participation of Olympians and candidates for the Olympic Games – a total of more than 100 people. Among them were runner Diana Labočevskė, high jumper Raividas Stanys, cyclists Ramūnas Navardauskas and Ignatas Konovalovas, rowers Saulius Ritteris and Mindaugas Griškonis, canoer Aurimas Lankas, boxer Evaldas Petrauskas, racewalker Brigita Virbalytė and others.

“Second Career” Training Course 2017:

We care about every former, present, or future LTeam member. This training course is just one of the many ways to help athletes remain an important part of society after the end of their athletic careers. Their knowledge and athletic experience are genuine, exceptional, and advantageous when embarking on a second career. Our mission is to help the future Olympians, athletes who are still actively involved with sports, but already considering their next steps, and former athletes”, said the LNOC President Daina Gudzinevičiūtė when pointing out the importance of the project.

During the four years, the training course for athletes had been led by the IOC’s representative, pentathlete, world prize winner, sports consultant, and physician Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy from Ukraine, former professional badminton player and Olympian, instructor of the IOC’s Athlete Career Programme Pedro Yang from Guatemala, the LNOC’s Director of Foreign Relations and former professional shooter Vaida Masalskytė and others.

“Second career is like an emergency exit which just has to be there at all times, whether you need it or not”, thinks rower Mindaugas Griškonis.