A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the
International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the
Olympic Games. They may nominate cities within their respective areas as candidates for future Olympic Games. NOCs also promote the development of athletes and training of coaches and officials at a national level within their geographies.
National Olympic Committees
As of 2020, there are 206 National Olympic Committees. These include each of the 193
member states of the United Nations, one
UN observer state (
Palestine), one UN non-member state in
free association with
New Zealand (the
Cook Islands) and two
states with limited recognition (
Kosovo and
Taiwan).
There are also nine
dependent territories with recognized NOCs: four
territories of the United States (
American Samoa,
Guam,
Puerto Rico, and the
United States Virgin Islands), three
British Overseas Territories (
Bermuda, the
British Virgin Islands, and the
Cayman Islands), one
constituent country of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands (
Aruba) and one
special administrative region of
China (
Hong Kong).
Prior to 1996, rules for recognising dependent territories or
constituent countries as separate countries within the IOC were not as strict as those within the
United Nations, which allowed these territories to field teams separately from their sovereign state. Following an amendment to the Olympic Charter in 1996, NOC recognition can only be granted after recognition as an independent country by the international community. Since
the rule does not apply retroactively, the dependent territories and constituent countries which were recognised before the rule change are allowed to continue sending separate teams to the Olympics, while the
Faroe Islands and
Macau send their own
Paralympic teams.
The only states which thus qualify to participate in the future are the
Vatican City, a UN observer state, and
Niue, a UN non-member state in free association with New Zealand. Currently,
all other remaining states are ineligible to join the IOC as they are not recognised by a majority of the United Nations member countries.
Constituent countries and dependent territories such as
Curaçao, the
Faroe Islands,
Gibraltar,
Macau and
New Caledonia can also no longer be recognised, so athletes from these territories can only participate in the Olympics as part of their parent nation's national team. This rule also applies to territories experiencing a change in status – the
Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee was dissolved at the 123rd IOC session in July 2011 as the
Netherlands Antilles ceased to exist in 2010.
For those countries and territories that are part of the
Commonwealth of Nations, their National Olympic Committees also serve as the members of the
Commonwealth Games Association. They are responsible for organising and overseeing their national teams at the
Commonwealth Games.
Listed NOCs
This section lists the current:
* 206 National Olympic Committees who are recognised by the International Olympic Committee, and so are the members of the
Association of National Olympic Committees.
* 8 National Olympic Committees who are recognised by their continental Olympic associations, but are not recognised by the International Olympic Committee (''Italics'').
The ANOC members are eligible to enter the
Olympic Games. Some National Olympic Committees who are members of a continental Olympic association but not ANOC members compete in continental-level and subregional-level tournaments. These committees, however, are not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games.
The five continental Olympic associations are:
* Africa – ''
Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa'' (ANOCA)
* America – ''
Pan American Sports Organization'' (PASO)
* Asia – ''
Olympic Council of Asia'' (OCA)
* Europe – ''
European Olympic Committees'' (EOC)
* Oceania – ''
Oceania National Olympic Committees'' (ONOC)
The IOC runs the
Summer Olympic Games and the
Winter Olympic Games as competitions in which all IOC-recognised NOCs can participate. Each continent also runs its own championships for their members:
* ANOCA –
African Games
* PASO –
Pan American Games and
Pan American Winter Games
* OCA –
Asian Games and
Asian Winter Games
* EOC –
European Games
* ONOC –
Pacific Games
While not a continental union in itself, the
Union of Arab National Olympic Committees (UANOC) organises multi-sport events between Arabic-speaking countries. All 22 National Olympic Committees that form the UANOC are also members of either the ANOCA or the OCA and are eligible to send their athletes to either the African or Asian Games. National Olympic Committees from the UANOC member countries are noted in the list below.
Africa (ANOCA)
1: National Olympic Committee is a member of the UANOC.
America (PASO)
Asia (OCA)
1: National Olympic Committee is a member of the UANOC.
2: National Olympic Committee is a member of the OCA but not an ANOC member.
3: Official name used by the IOC, ANOC and OCA for the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Europe (EOC)
1: Israel was a member of the OCA, but left the organisation in 1981. It joined the EOC in 1994.
Oceania (ONOC)
1: National Olympic Committee is an associate member of the ONOC but not an ANOC member.
List of NOCs by recognition date
Below is a chronological list of the 206 NOCs recognized by the
International Olympic Committee, since its foundation in 1894. Many of these committees were founded many years before their official recognition, while others were immediately accepted after being founded.
Only extant states are listed. Also, the states that have changed their name at some point are listed under their current names. Former states (e.g. the
Soviet Union,
Czechoslovakia, and the
Netherlands Antilles etc.), are not listed, only the current states derived from them: for example, the
Czech Olympic Committee representing
Bohemia was created and recognized in 1899. It was later transformed into the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee, and, after the
dissolution of Czechoslovakia, was re-recognized in 1993.
Notes
Divisions
The NOCs are all members of the ''Association of National Olympic Committees'' (ANOC), which is also split among five continental associations:
See the article for each continental association for the complete lists of all NOCs.
Unrecognized National Olympic Committees
The
Macau Sports and Olympic Committee was founded in 1987 and has attempted to enroll to the IOC since its foundation, but is still not officially recognized and thus no athlete has participated in the Olympic Games under the name "
Macau, China". It has, however,
participated in the Paralympic Games.
Like Macau, the
Faroe Islands have
a recognised National Paralympic Committee.
Other existing countries/regions with unrecognized Olympic committees:
Catalonia,
Gibraltar,
French Polynesia,
Niue,
Somaliland,
New Caledonia,
Kurdistan,
Northern Cyprus,
Abkhazia,
Native Americans, the
Northern Mariana Islands,
Anguilla,
Montserrat,
Transnistria and
Turks & Caicos Islands.
South Ossetia intends to establish a National Olympic Committee, and representatives from the
Republic of Artsakh take part in Armenia's National Olympic Committee.
See also
*
National Paralympic Committee
*
List of IOC country codes
*
District of Columbia Olympic Committee
*
Commonwealth Games Association
References
Citations
Sources
*
Association of National Olympic Committees website
External links
*
*
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