The Cyprus Olympic Committee (COC) ( el, Κυπριακή Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή) is National Olympic Committee representing the

Republic of Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. It is responsible for promoting the Olympic ideals on the island and for ensuring that Cyprus is represented with athletes at the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

and other multi-sport events. Members of the committee are 31 sports federations, which elect the Executive Council composed of the president and twelve members. The COC organized twice the

Games of the Small States of Europe The Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) is a biennial multi-sport event, launched by the Republic of San Marino, organized by and featuring the National Olympic Committees of nine European small states since 1985. The Games are held at t ...

, in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

and in 2009.

Mission and Games

The Cyprus Olympic Committee is responsible for safeguarding and implementing Olympism and the Olympic ideals in Cyprus. It's also responsible for supporting, entering and overseeing teams for the Olympic Games,

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from European nations and several transcontinental countries. The Games were envisioned and are governed by the European Olympic Committees ...

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

, Mediterranean Games,

Mediterranean Beach Games The Mediterranean Beach Games is a multi-sport event organized by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM) since 2015. The CIJM formed the games in a meeting on October 20, 2012 in Mersin, Turkey, and decided on a format of every 4 ...

and other Junior-level multisport competitions such as the

Youth Olympic Games The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is an international multi-sport event for athletes between 15 and 18 years old, organized by the International Olympic Committee. The games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consiste ...

, the Summer and Winter

European Youth Olympic Festival The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fir ...

and the Youth Commonwealth Games.

History

The Cyprus Olympic Committee was founded on June 10, 1974, and became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1979. Prior to that, Cypriot athletes competed in international events representing Greece. Amongst the most well known Cypriots who have represented Greece are

Ioannis Frangoudis Ioannis Frangoudis ( el, Ιωάννης Φραγκούδης; 1863 – 19 October 1916) was a Greek soldier, athlete and Hellenic Army officer who reached the rank of Colonel. He also competed in the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens as a shooter. F ...

(triple shooting medalist in Athens 1896), Aristidis Konstantinidis (cycling gold medalist in Athens 1896),

Stavros Tziortzis Stavros Tziortzis (born 15 September 1948) is a Greek- Cypriot former hurdler who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics (6th place) and in the 1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, So ...

(7th in the 400m hurdles in Munich 1972) and Lakis Georgiou Psimolofitis (8th in skeet shooting in Munich 1972). Cyprus’ first ever Olympic participation came in the Winter Games of 1980 at Lake Placid in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, while the debut of Cyprus in the Summer Olympics came six months later in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. Since then, Cyprus has been present at every Summer and Winter Olympic Games as well as other multisport events in continental and world level.

Landmark moments

The greatest accomplishment for Cyprus at the Olympics came in

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, when Laser sailor

Pavlos Kontides Pavlos Kontides ( gr, Παύλος Κοντίδης, born 11 February 1990) is a Cypriot sailor. He became the first Cypriot athlete ever to win an Olympic medal for his country, by winning the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Me ...

won the silver medal, which is (as of 2017) the only Cypriot Olympic medal. Other successes for Cyprus at Olympic level were the 4th and 5th place by

Antonis Nikolaidis Antonis Nikolaidis ( gr, Αντώνης Νικολαϊδης; born 24 January 1967 in Islington, Greater London, Great Britain) is a British-born Cypriot sport shooter. He captured a total of seven medals (three silver and four bronze) in me ...

and

Georgios Achilleos Georgios Achilleos (; born December 24, 1980) is a Cypriot sports shooter and past World titlist and World No. 1 in Skeet. He is a four-time Skeet Shooting medalist in the World Championships, and a four-time Olympian, with his 5th position ...

respectively at the

Beijing 2008 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

skeet shooting event, and the placing of six athletes (

Kyriakos Ioannou Kyriakos Ioannou ( el, Κυριάκος Ιωάννου, born 26 July 1984) is a Cypriot high jumper. He has twice won medals at the World Championships in Athletics (2007 and 2009) and was the bronze medallist at the IAAF World Indoor Champions ...

Milan Trajkovic Milan Trajković ( sr, Милан Трајковић, el, Μίλαν Τράικοβιτς, born 17 March 1992 in Surdulica) is a Serbian-born Cypriot athlete specialising in the sprint hurdles. He has won two gold medals at the Games of the Smal ...

, Apostolos Parellis, Dimitrios Chondrokoukis and Marios Georgiou) in their event finals in the

Rio 2016 ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

Games. Cyprus' best placing in the Commowealth Games came in 2010 at

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, when the island was 10th among 75 nations in the medal standings at the XIX Commonwealth Games. The COC twice hosted the

, in compliance with the hosting rotation of the participant countries. The capital Nicosia hosted the III Games in 1989 while the event returned to the island in 2009 for the XIII Games with Nicosia and

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

hosting events.

List of presidents

Since 1974, six individuals have served as President of the Cyprus Olympic Committee. The longest term was that of Kikis N. Lazarides who served as president between 1984 and 2008. The current president is George Chrysostomou who was elected in October 2020 for the Olympic Cycle 2020–2024.

Executive committee

Following the scheduled elections for the four-year circle until 2024, in October 2020, George Chrysostomou was elected president, after serving as vice-president in the previous four-year cycle. Mr George Chrysostomou served as president of the

Cyprus Basketball Federation The Cyprus Basketball Federation (CBF) ( Greek: Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Καλαθοοσφαίρισης (ΚΟΚ)) is the governing body for basketball on the island of Cyprus and is a division of the Cyprus Sport Organisation (ΚΟ� ...

between 2004 and 2014. The 2020-2024 committee of the Cyprus NOC is represented by: * President: George Chrysostomou * Vice President: Yiotis Ioannides * Secretary General: Andreas Georgiou * Treasurer: Alexandros Christoforou * Members: Andreas Theofylaktou, Sotos Trikomitis, Pavlos Georgiades, George Apostolou, Demetris Leontis, George Papageorgiou, Odysseas Patsalides.

Member federations

The Cyprus National Federations are the organizations that coordinate all aspects of their individual sports. They are responsible for training, competition and development of their sports. There are currently 29 Olympic Summer and two Winter Sport Federations in Cyprus.

Olympic House and Museum

The Olympic House, headquarters of the COC, opened on September 16, 2006, in a ceremony attended by the then

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the

Tassos Papadopoulos Efstathios "Tassos" Nikolaou Papadopoulos ( el, Ευστάθιος (Τάσσος) Νικολάου Παπαδόπουλος; 7 January 1934 – 12 December 2008) was a Cypriot politician and barrister who served as the fifth president of Cyp ...

and president of the IOC

Jacques Rogge Jacques Jean Marie Rogge, Count Rogge (, ; 2 May 1942 – 29 August 2021) was a Belgian sports administrator and physician who served as the eighth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. In 2013, Rogge bec ...

. The three-story building houses almost every sporting federations of the island, including sports which aren't on the Olympic schedule. The Olympic House covers an area of 7500 m2 and cost 5,63 million Cyprus pounds. The Olympic House also houses the Cyprus Olympic Museum, which spans since 2012 on all three floors of the building. More than 400 artifacts are on display in the Olympic Museum, including the suit worn by

at London 2012, a medal won by Theofanis Theodotou in the

Zappas Olympics The Zappas Olympics ( el, Ζάππειες Ολυμπιάδες), simply called Olympics ( el, Ολύμπια, ''Olympia'') at the time, were a series of athletic events held in Athens, Greece, in 1859, 1870, and 1875 sponsored by Greek businessm ...

in 1888 and sporting gear of the 1946 Boston Marathon

winner Winner(s) or The Winner(s) may refer to: * Champion, the victor in a game or contest *The successful social class in winner and loser culture Film * ''The Winner'' (1926 film), an American silent film starring Billy Sullivan * ''The Winner'' ...

Stylianos Kyriakides.

Events and awards

In a way of implementing the beliefs and ideals of the Olympic Movement, the COC organizes events which inspire people and the younger generation. The special events vary from year to year and include multisport events as well as local and national events. These are the Olympic Day, Pierre de Coubertin student conference, National Olympic Academy conference, Olympic Education program, Woman in Sport conference, Award Banquets for the best junior athletes, and Fair Play ambassador appointment. The COC also organizes events which target to integrate and introduce sports to persons from sensitive groups such as refugees.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

Cyprus at the Olympics 1974 establishments in Cyprus Ol Sports organizations established in 1974