The grants are aimed at assisting organisations and programmes within the US Olympic and Paralympic family, as well as to improve sustained competitive excellence, instil the Olympic and Paralympic values and grow sport participation in the US.

"On behalf of the US Olympic Committee, a big thanks goes out to the organisations who applied for Team USA Grants and also to all the people that voted on Facebook," said the USOC chief of communications Patrick Sandusky.

"Additionally, congratulations to the winning organisations for their commitment to spreading the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect through this initiative."

The winners in the Excellence category are the PossAbilities Paralympic training programme and USA Triathlon's Veterans to Victors initiative.

"On behalf of USA Triathlon, we're honoured to be voted as a winner in the Excellence category for Team USA Grants," said Chuck Menke, the marketing and communications director for USA Triathlon.

"We believe the Veterans to Victors programme will aid greatly in the development of our Paratriathlon High Performance Plan as we prepare for the sport's debut at the Paralympic Games in 2016.

"We'd also like to extend our appreciation to the US Olympic Committee for providing this generous opportunity as well as to our members and online community for voting."

Winning in the Friendship category are Fever on Ice and US Rowing's America Rows programme.

"We are very honoured and excited to be grand prize winners of the Team USA Grant," said US Olympic figure skaters Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov who are the founders of Fever on Ice.

"We are eager to put these funds to good use by improving and expanding Fever on Ice and offering this unique fusion of academics and Olympic sports to more schools."

Elsewhere the winners of the Respect category are Legends of the Olympiad presented by Art of the Olympians and the Western Wisconsin Speed Team.

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