The IOC Young Leaders programme, which is moving from an annual to a four-year model, will provide additional tools and expertise that may be required in order for those selected to become successful social entrepreneurs and make a positive impact through sport.

Starting in February, the programme - supported by The Olympic Partner sponsor Panasonic - will offer participants a total of CHF10,000 ($11,000/£8,000/€9,000) in seed funding over the four years, and support them with weekly learning modules and leadership opportunities.

Six of the 25 chosen Young Leaders are from Africa - Egypt's Omar Bassyouni, Pauline Msungu of Kenya, Lamti Zakaria of Morocco, Nigeria's Olushinaola Ewuola, Moussa Diedhiou from Senegal and Emmanuel Sebata of Uganda.

Layana de Souza of Brazil, Canadian Jessie Niles, Adriana Escobar from El Salvador, Elena Mercedes Haro Lima of Guatemala and Peru, plus American Lindsay Jones, are the five from the Americas.

Shiling Lin from China, Rishav Bhowmik from India, Sangeun Lee from South Korea, Mayssa Bsaibes of Lebanon, Malaysia's Tania Lee, Lawrence Tan from the Philippines, Dhukhilan Jeevamani of Singapore and Jemima Montag from Australia have all been chosen. 

Sophia Papamichalopoulos OLY of Cyprus and Austria, Aneta Grabmüllerova from the Czech Republic, Corentin Caporal from France and Peru, Italy's Nicolò Di Tullio, Kamil Pavlinský from Slovakia and Francisco Javier Raya Buenache OLY from Spain complete the 25.

As ambassadors of Olympism, the IOC Young Leaders will also play active roles in advising the IOC and the wider Olympic Movement on specific topics, while promoting the Games and Olympic values worldwide.

"All of us in the Olympic community share the mission to make the world a better place through sport," said IOC President Thomas Bach.

"The IOC Young Leaders programme is empowering young people from around the world to put this mission in their communities into action.

"Thanks to our Olympic Partner Panasonic, we are able to build on the success of the first three editions of the programme and to expand it even further.

"With a sharp focus on building sustainable sport-based social businesses, 25 young people will be given unique opportunities.

"I look forward to meeting each of them and learning about their ideas on how to bring about positive change in their communities in and through sport."

The final 25 candidates were selected from 350 applicants, all with a background in or a clear passion for sport.

The list of selected 25 Young Leaders is balanced in terms of universality and diversity, with 13 female and 12 male candidates, from 25 countries across five continents, and includes countries that have not yet been represented in the programme.

Launched in 2016, the IOC Young Leaders programme - previously known as the IOC Young Change-Makers programme until its re-naming in 2019 - empowers young people to leverage the power of sport to make a positive difference in their communities.

So far, with the support of seed-funding from the IOC and a network of mentors, these young people have delivered more than 116 sport-led projects in communities across the globe, promoting themes such as education, social inclusion, sustainability and well-being, and directly benefiting more than 30,000 people.