Although representing your “country” at the Olympics or Paralympics is a point of pride for athletes, not every flag we see flown at the Games is officially a nation.
According to Article 6 of the Olympic Charter, the Olympic Games are “competitions between athletes in individual or team events and not between countries.” Despite this, country rankings in the medal standings are featured prominently during the Games, and we also hear the national anthem of each gold medalist’s country during the medal ceremonies.
However, included amongst these “countries” are entities with limited recognition, or even some with no international recognition as a sovereign state.
The current Olympic Charter rules date back to 1996, which came on the heels of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. This led to the creation of some internationally recognized entities on the world stage, such as Slovenia.
The IOC defines “country” as “an independent state recognized by the international community.” with the most clear-cut way to clear this threshold being membership with the United Nations. Each country can then set up a National Olympic Committee (NOC) and seek recognition from the IOC.
When the new rules were implemented in 1996, some special-status territories already had recognized NOCs, such as Bermuda (British territory), Puerto Rico (U.S. territory), Aruba (constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands), and the Cook Islands (state in free association with New Zealand).
Another one of these special cases is Hong Kong, which has won four swimming medals at the past two Olympics from Siobhan Haughey.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China.
A few other special cases include Kosovo and Taiwan, which are not recognized by the UN, and Palestine, which is a UN observer state.
Taiwan, which competes under “Chinese Taipei,” refers to the island of Taiwan but due to its conflict with mainland China competes at the Olympics under an ambiguous arrangement.
Palestine’s NOC was recognized by the IOC before 1996, and was granted “non-member observer state” status from the UN in 2012.
Kosovo, located just south of Serbia, declared its independence in 2008 and is recognized by roughly half of the UN member states (97 of 193), giving it diplomatic recognition.
In December 2014, it was recognized as a full-time member of the IOC. Serbia initially protested Kosovo’s admission to the IOC, but opted not to boycott the 2016 Rio Olympics after considering the effects of Yugoslavia’s expulsion in 1992.
The current breakdown of states recognized by the IOC is:
- 193 UN member states
- One UN observer state (Palestine)
- Two states without UN recognition (Kosovo and Taiwan)
- One associated state of New Zealand (Cook Islands)
- Four territories of the U.S. (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the USVI)
- Three British Overseas Territories (Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands)
- One constituent country of the Netherlands (Aruba)
- One special administrative region of China (Hong Kong)
Many of the non-sovereign states that compete at the Games were initially recognized in the wake of World War II, when the IOC was actively seeking participation for London 1948 after two Olympic editions were canceled in 1940 and 1944.
After two editions of the Olympics were canceled, the IOC essentially was seeking participation from anyone to compete at the 1948 Games in London, so
Vatican City is one state that is generally believed to have the capability of being eligible, but it does not have an NOC. Bougainville is expected to be the next eligible state to compete at the Games as it is close to independence from Papua New Guinea.
It’s also notable that the International Paralympic Committee has membership rules that operate separately from the IOC, and as a result, the Faroe Islands and Macao have recognized NPCs and are thus represented at the Paralympics but not the Olympics.
The Olympic Charter makes it clear that political neutrality is of paramount importance at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The charter’s fifth fundamental principle of Olympism reads: “Recognizing that sport occurs within the framework of society, sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality.”
The rules and guidelines may be a bit muddy, but this is why some “nations” we see on the medal table at the Olympic or Paralympic Games may not be fully recognized countries.
It’s interesting to think I as an American citizen could move to Puerto Rico for a handful of years and would be eligible to represent them at the Olympics.
I am no way close to the Olympics but maybe someone will consider it.
Still need to hit A cuts. Also it says you have to be a natrualized citizen
I,m murky on why places like Hong Kong compete as countries while places like Scotland or Wales don,t.They compete as countries in soccer etc. and Commonwealth games.Hong Kong belongs to China..end of discussion….I don,t get it.
The short answer is “grandfathering”.
“grandfathering”.
Please explain.
There’s a whole article explaining.
Read the question above!!!!
Why Hong Kong, but not Scotland or Isle of Man for that matter?
Because Hong Kong asked before 1996, and those other places didn’t.
Most of these territories developed NOCs in the wake of WW2, when the whole movement was crumbling and the IOC was willing to be more flexible on who was sending delegations.
I wasn’t around in the UK during that time, but I would imagine that after WW2, there were probably good political reasons to not fracture the country.
In most cases where this happened, the territories when inducted did not have an appreciable impact on the home country’s Olympic team. There weren’t a lot of Hong Kong athletes on the UK team or Puerto Rican athletes on the US team, so the sovereign probably shrugged in response to a… Read more »
Thank you for explanation, I appreciate it.
The England, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland has always baffled me. I’m married to a Brit.
In 2012 London was the only time in recent history has team GB entered a men’s football (soccer to some) team into the Olympics. As mentioned above the World Cup has all 4 countries competing separately & happily so, even in 2012 there was much debate, such is the rivalry between the different ‘country’ Associations.
from a practical standpoint, Scotland and the Isle of Man are far more connected to England than Hong Kong is
If only!
Thanks for the article. And there are more wrinkles, such as Northern Irish athletes being able to compete for either Team GB or Team Ireland, as we’ve recently seen with Wiffen.
I’m sure I should know this, but how is eligibility construed for the teams which are territories? E.g. who is eligible to compete for Puerto Rico, and are the transfer rules between Puerto Rico and the US the same as between two distinct countries? Is it the same for all territories, or are there case-by-case rules?
I’ve been trying to figure out the rules, but it seems to be case-by-case and determined by some kind of a loose “residency/connection to the territory” case. Transfers work the same as two distinct countries.
To be on the Puerto Rico team you have to:
1. Be born in Puerto Rico, OR
2. Be a naturalized US Citizen and have lived in Puerto Rico for 3 years, OR
3. Have a parent or grandparent born there.
I don’t know if those rules are identical for every such situation.
My intuition is that it’s been a bit loose because none of these territories have 1) become dominant in sports (aka a team of basketball players born in the mainland… Read more »
Got it–thanks Braden!
I was also gonna comment on the Vatican, lol
I don’t think many folks live there, and those who do prolly aren’t the usual age bracket for Olympians.
They have a soccer team!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City_national_football_team
I feel like they have some priests and nuns who can do equestrian and shoot.