Carroll and a host of Olympians were in the capital on Thursday to recognise the inaugural Australian Olympic change makers, including three Canberra recipients.

The program has evolved from the Pierre de Coubertin award and celebrates students who demonstrate the Olympic spirit, with 26 recognised for driving positive change.

The students presented Carroll with recommendations about how the Olympic movement can affect change in equality, sustainability, engagement and empowering young people.

"It's been impressive. The Pierre de Coubertin needed refreshing, we got approval from the IOC to use a concept and it's been well received so far.

"It's about the inspiration they give to the rest of their school mates.

"It doesn't have to just be about sport. It's about using the power of sport and inspiration of sport to be the best you can and contribute regardless of what you do.

"We're just using the power of sport to drive that."

Olympans Marianna Tolo, Cameron Girdlestone, Brooke Hanson, Josh Katz, Kot Ngawati, Greta Small and Kathy Watt were also part of the two-day summit.

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Amaroo School's Geema Steele, St Clare's Lauren Thomas and Daramalan's Aidan Gunning were the Canberra recipients, who were picked from more than 1000 nominations.

"We have a year 7 and 10 peer support program, but most of the activities were from 2009," Steele said.

"They were outdated, so I tried to make them more active because that's how year 7 students learn better.

"I wanted to make a difference for this year and then continue that on. It was inspirational to hear stories from Olympians, an amazing experience."

Canberra Capitals skipper Tolo said: "The energy from the students is incredible. This is the next generation, with a whole different experience to the generation of current athletes."