 | |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Code | GBR |
| Created | 1905 |
| Recognized | 1905 |
| Continental Association | EOC |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| President | HRH The Princess Royal[1] |
| Website | www |
| Notes | Also includes the following territories and dependencies:
 Turks and Caicos Islands |
TheBritish Olympic Association (BOA;Welsh:Cymdeithas Olympaidd Prydain; IOC Code:GBR)[2] is theNational Olympic Committee for theUnited Kingdom. It represents the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), but also represents the athletes of the threeCrown Dependencies ofJersey,Guernsey and theIsle of Man and eight of the eleven inhabitedBritish Overseas Territories. TheBritish Virgin Islands,Bermuda andCayman Islands each have their own national Olympic associations, founded before the modern rules restricting the recognition ofnational Olympic committees to recognised states.
Athletes from Northern Ireland are also entitled, as of right, to representIreland (the team organised by theOlympic Federation of Ireland) and routinely do so in certain sports due to all-island governing bodies existing in those sports such as rugby, tennis and field hockey.
Founded in 1905, The BOA is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from theGreat Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, branded asTeam GB, at both the summer and winterOlympic Games, theYouth Olympic Games, theEuropean Youth Olympic Festivals, and at theEuropean Games. The four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories and the three Crown Dependencies organise national teams separately to compete at theCommonwealth Games, and the BOA is not involved.
The BOA's origins pre-date the International Olympic movement and its governing body, the International Olympic Committee.
It traces its roots back to theNational Olympian Association (NOA), which held its inaugural meeting at the Liverpool Gymnasium, Myrtle Street,Liverpool in November 1865. It promoted an annual series of sporting events across Britain, with the aim of encouraging participation inphysical education through Olympian festivals. The NOA came about mainly through the efforts ofJohn Hulley of Liverpool (Chairman), DrWilliam Penny Brookes (ofMuch Wenlock) andE G Ravenstein (president of theGerman Gymnastic Society of London).[3] It took the existingOlympian Games of Much Wenlock as its example, thus the NOA Games "were open to all comers" and not just the products ofBritain's public schools.
After the NOA closed in 1883 its motto (Civium virtus civitatis tutamen meaning 'the power of the citizens is the defence of the state') and ethos were inherited by the National Physical Recreation Society (NPRS) which was founded in 1885. From 1902 the President and Treasurer of the NPRS were members of the Olympic "Comité Britannique" and the NPRS was a founding body of the British Olympic Association in 1905.[4]
The British Olympic Association – responsible for Olympic participation of theUnited Kingdom comprising itsconstituent countries, theCrown Dependencies andBritish Overseas Territories which do not have their ownNOC – competes at all summer, winter and youth Olympics asGreat Britain ("Team GB").
The association comprises members from the following countries:
Note –Northern Irish athletes can choose whether to compete for Great Britain and Northern Ireland or for theRepublic of Ireland, as they are entitled to citizenship of either nation under theGood Friday Agreement. However in a number of sports, including hockey, tennis and rugby sevens, Northern Irish athletes rarely represent Team GB because the designated federation only selects from those players who are active on the island of Great Britain (for example, Northern Ireland born hockey players who live and play in England). Jack McMillan, a Northern Ireland-born heat swimmer in the gold-medal winning men's 4 x 200 freestyle relay British team in 2024, had previously swum for Team Ireland at the Olympics in 2021.
The team that won themen's 4 x 200 freestyle relay was unique in being the first gold medal relay team from Great Britain ever to contain members from all four constituent countries: an Englishman (in fact two,Tom Dean andJames Guy), a Northern Irishman (Jack McMillan), a Scotsman (Duncan Scott) and a Welshman (again two,Kieran Bird andMatt Richards).
A number of notable British Olympians and Olympic medalists have emerged from the Crown dependencies, includingCarl Hester, four-time equestrian medalist from Guernsey andMark Cavendish, track cycling silver medalist andPeter Kennaugh, gold winning team pursuiter, from the Isle of Man.
Some notable British Olympians have come from British Overseas Territories, though some have transferred sporting allegiance toEngland for Commonwealth Games purposes afterwards. Such a switch is not necessary to represent Team GB at the Olympic Games: Examples include Olympic bronze medalist sprinterZharnel Hughes and long jumperShara Proctor, both originally fromAnguilla, andDelano Williams, another sprinter fromTurks and Caicos Islands. The inhabited British Overseas Territories under the jurisdiction of the BOA are:
Anguilla
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar
Montserrat
Pitcairn IslandsSaint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaTurks and Caicos IslandsIOC rules currently do not allow dependent territories to obtain recognition for National Olympic Committees (NOCs). Three British Overseas Territories have their own NOCs predating this rule and are therefore not connected with the BOA:Bermuda, theBritish Virgin Islands and theCayman Islands. While the territories ofBritish Antarctic Territory,British Indian Ocean Territory andSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are nominally represented by the BOA, these territories have no permanent population and do not send athletes.Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a pair of British military areas on the island of Cyprus, has a predominantly Cypriot population from day to day, and the British personnel there are all born elsewhere. As such, it also does not send athletes of its own to Team GB, nor competes at the Commonwealth Games.
Among Crown Dependencies and current-day Overseas Territories, only a few have been represented on Team GB since 1930 (the year of the first Commonwealth Games) while retaining citizenship of, and (if the sport is held) Commonwealth Games eligibility for their territories. These include (athletes in bold won an Olympic medal representing Team GB):
Some more have participated in Team GB after switching Commonwealth Games eligibility mid-career from their territories to England before the Olympic Games, including:
UK SportUK Anti-Doping
Sport EnglandEnglish Institute of Sport
Sport Northern Ireland
Sportscotland
Sport WalesThe BOA is one of 206National Committees (NOCs) currently recognised by theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC leads the promotion of Olympism in accordance with theOlympic Charter.
Working with the national governing bodies of each sport, the BOA selectsTeam GB's members to compete in all sports at the summer and winter Olympics.The BOA is independent and receives no funding from the government. Its income comes from sponsorship, fundraising and events.
Great Britain & Northern Ireland is one of only five National Olympic Committees (the others being Australia, France, Greece and Switzerland) which have never failed to be represented at the Summer Olympic Games since 1896. Of these countries Great Britain & Northern Ireland, France and Switzerland are the only countries to have been present at all Olympic Winter Games; thus Great Britain & Northern Ireland is one of three countries that have competed at all Olympic Games. Great Britain is also the only team in the Olympic Games to have won a gold in every Summer games. The United Kingdom has hosted three Olympic Games, all of them in London: in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
At its formation in 1905 the association consisted of seven national governing body members from the following sports:fencing,life-saving,cycling,skating,rowing,athletics,rugby football,association football, andarchery. It now includes as its members the thirty-three national governing bodies of each Olympic sport, both summer and winter.
A representative of each of the Olympic sports makes up the NOC, the BOA's decision and policy-making body. The NOC elects three officers: a President, a Chair, and a Vice-Chair, each for a four-year term. Six members of the NOC are elected to the Board, which oversees the work of the BOA and puts forward proposals for decision by the NOC. The chief office holders as of 2025 are:[5]
The board of the BOA also includes a number of athletes' representatives and three independent non-executive directors.
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