List Of IOC Country Codes
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The
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
(IOC) uses
three-letter abbreviation A three-letter acronym (TLA), or three-letter abbreviation, is an abbreviation consisting of three letters. These are usually the initial letters of the words of the phrase abbreviated, and are written in capital letters (upper case); three-lette ...
country codes Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes (geocodes) developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The term ' ...
to refer to each group of athletes that participate in 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 var ...
. Each
geocode A geocode is a code that represents a geographic entity (location or object). It is a unique identifier of the entity, to distinguish it from others in a finite set of geographic entities. In general the ''geocode'' is a human-readable and ...
usually identifies a National Olympic Committee (NOC), but there are several codes that have been used for other instances in past Games, such as teams composed of athletes from multiple nations, or groups of athletes not formally representing any nation. Several of the IOC codes are different from the standard
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas o ...
codes. Other sporting organisations like
FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
use similar country codes to refer to their respective teams, but with some differences. Still others, such as the
Commonwealth Games Federation The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), currently known as Commonwealth Sport, is the international organisation responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games, and is governing body of the ...
or
Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...
, use the IOC list verbatim. Because French is the first reference language of the IOC, followed by
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, followed by the host country's language when necessary, most IOC codes have their origins from French or English.


History

The 1956 Winter Olympics and
1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...
were the first Games to feature ''Initials of Nations'' to refer to each NOC in the published official reports. However, the codes used at the next few Games were often based on the host nation's language (e.g., GIA for
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
at the 1956 Winter Olympics and
1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...
, both held in Italy, from Italian ''Giappone'') or based on the French name for the nation (e.g., AUT for
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, from ''Autriche''). By the 1972 Winter Olympics, most codes were standardized on the current usage, but several have changed in recent years. Additionally, the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, division and unification of Germany,
breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, dissolution of Czechoslovakia, and several other instances of geographical renaming have all resulted in code changes. In addition to this list of over 200 NOCs, the participation of
National Paralympic Committee A National Paralympic Committee (NPC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Paralympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), NPCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the ...
s (NPCs) at the
Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...
requires standardised IOC codes, such as
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
(or as " Macau, China" since 1999) and the
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...
, coded MAC and FRO respectively.Macau, China


Current NOCs

There are 206 current NOCs ( National Olympic Committees) within the Olympic Movement. The following tables show the currently used code for each NOC and any different codes used in past Games, per the official reports from those Games. Some of the past code usage is further explained in the following sections. Codes used specifically for a Summer Games only or a Winter Games only, within the same year, are indicated by "S" and "W" respectively.


Current NPCs

Most National Paralympic Committees (NPC) cover a territory with an active NOC. In these cases the NPC codes matches the IOC codes shown above. The two current NPCs without a corresponding NOC use the following NPC codes.


Historic NOCs and teams


Codes still in use

Fourteen historical NOCs or teams have codes that are still used in the IOC results database to refer to past medal winners from these teams.


Obsolete codes

Unlike the previous list, these codes no longer appear in the IOC results database. When a past athlete from one of these teams has won a medal, the new code is shown next to them instead. Two other significant code changes have occurred, both because of a change in the nation's designation as used by the IOC: * HOL was changed to NED for the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
for the 1992 Games, reflecting the change in designation from ''Holland''. * IRN was changed to IRI for
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
for the 1992 Games, reflecting the change in designation to ''Islamic Republic of Iran''.


Special codes for Olympics


Special codes for Paralympics


Special codes for World Games

The
World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...
are a multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. The World Games are governed by the
International World Games Association The International World Games Association, abbreviated as IWGA, is an international association, recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that organises every four years, beginning in 1981, the multi-sport event called The World Ga ...
, under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee.


See also

*
Comparison of IOC, FIFA, and ISO 3166 country codes This is a comparison of the List of IOC country codes, IOC, List of FIFA country codes, FIFA, and ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, ISO 3166-1 three-letter codes, combined into one table for easy reference. Highlighted rows indicate those entries in which the th ...
*
List of FIFA country codes FIFA assigns a three-letter country code (more properly termed a trigram or trigraph) to each of its member and non-member countries. These are the official codes used by FIFA and its continental confederations ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OF ...
* Lists of National Olympic Committees by continental association: **
Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (acronym: ANOCA; french: Association des Comités Nationaux Olympiques d'Afrique, ACNOA, ar, رابطة اللجان الأولمبية الوطنية في إفريقيا) is an internati ...
**
European Olympic Committees The European Olympic Committees is an organisation based in Rome, Italy, consisting of 50 National Olympic Committees from the continent of Europe.EOC members include transcontinental countries Turkey and the Russian Federation, as well as Israel, ...
**
Oceania National Olympic Committees The Oceania National Olympic Committees (acronym: ONOC) is an international organization that congregates the 17 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of Oceania. It often assembles with other continental NOCs in the form of the Association of Nati ...
**
Olympic Council of Asia The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) is a governing body of sports in Asia, currently with 45 member National Olympic Committees. The current Acting President is Raja Randhir Singh, substituting Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah. The headquarters ...
**
Pan American Sports Organization The Panam Sports (Formerly Pan American Sports Organization; es, link=no, Organización Deportiva Panamericana; pt, link=no, Organizacão Depórtiva Panamericana; french: Organisation Sportive PanAméricaine) is an international organization whi ...
* List of participating nations at the Summer Olympic Games *
List of participating nations at the Winter Olympic Games This is a list of nations, as represented by National Olympic Committees (NOCs), that have participated in the Winter Olympic Games between 1924 and 2022. The Winter Olympic Games have been held every four years (once during each Olympiad) since ...
*
List of CGF country codes The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) uses three-letter abbreviation country codes to refer to each group of athletes that participate in the Commonwealth Games. Each code identifies a Commonwealth Games Association. Several of the CGF codes ...
*
ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It ...


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Geocoding-systems IOC list
IOC Country Codes The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses three-letter abbreviation country codes to refer to each group of athletes that participate in the Olympic Games. Each geocode usually identifies a National Olympic Committee (NOC), but there are s ...
International Olympic Committee