Twenty-two national coaches from five continents, 22 countries and 10 sports have begun the third module of the International Coaching Enrichment Certification Program (ICECP).

It consists of lectures, guest speakers, participant presentations, group work and field trips.

Topics include sport nutrition, sport medicine, injury management and prevention, sport psychology and physiology, sport administration and coaching methods.

The USOC's chief executive officer Scott Blackmun said: "ICECP is aimed at helping coaches develop proficiency in a wide variety of coaching skills and at all levels of competition in order to help them further develop the coaching infrastructure in their home countries."

Hank Steinbrecher, chief executive officer and secretary general of US Soccer during the 1990s, added: "Through sport, you can change lives.

"Coaches have the ability to transcend life values and cultural boundaries, and to make the world a better place."

The University of Delaware's deputy provost Havidan Rodriguez said: "The University supports the high ideals of the Olympic Movement and is pleased to offer a well structured, comprehensive and in-depth course of study."

The project is headed at Delaware by sport management programme director Dr Matthew Robinson and the director of strength and conditioning at the high performance figure skating centre, Jeff Schneider.

"We are looking to build on the success of our last two years," said Robinson.

"The faculty has been incredible and we have a committed and passionate group of participants who will return to their native countries to impact the grassroots levels all the way up to the highest levels of competition in their respective sports.

"We could not be more proud or more excited about working with the new ICECP group."