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British Olympic Association

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British Olympic Association
British Olympic Association logo
Country/Region United Kingdom
CodeGBR
Created1905
Recognized1905
Continental
Association		EOC
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
PresidentDame Katherine Grainger[1]
Websitewww.teamgb.com
NotesAlso includes the following territories and dependencies:

 Guernsey
 Jersey
 Isle of Man
 Anguilla
 Falkland Islands
 Gibraltar
 Montserrat
 Pitcairn Islands
 Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

 Turks and Caicos Islands
Olympic rings
Part of a series on
2012 Summer Olympics

The British Olympic Association (BOA; Welsh: Cymdeithas Olympaidd Prydain)[2] is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It represents the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), but also incorporate representatives from eight of the eleven inhabited British Overseas Territories (but not British Virgin Islands, Bermuda or Caymen Islands which have their own national Olympic associations), and the three Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man), who do not have their own separate Olympics teams.

Athletes from Northern Ireland are also entitled, as of right, to represent Ireland (the team organised by the Olympic 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 the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, branded as Team GB, at both the summer and winter Olympic Games, the Youth Olympic Games, the European Youth Olympic Festivals, and at the European Games. All the constituent members of the BOA compete and operate separately at the Commonwealth Games, and the BOA is not involved.

BOA members and sporting bodies

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The British Olympic Association – responsible for Olympic participation of the United Kingdom comprising its constituent countries, the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories which do not have their own NOC – competes at all summer, winter and youth Olympics as United Kingdom Great Britain ("Team GB").

Members

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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 the Republic of Ireland, as they are entitled to citizenship of either nation under the Good 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 the men's 4 x 200 freestyle relay was unique in being the first gold medal relay team from Great Britain ever to contain membes from all four constituent countries: an Englishman (in fact two, Tom Dean and James Guy), a Northern Irishman (Jack McMillan), a Scotsman (Duncan Scott) and a Welshman (again two, Kieran Bird and Matt Richards).

Crown Dependencies:

A number of notable British Olympians and Olympic medalists have emerged from the Crown dependencies, including Carl Hester, four-time equestrian medalist from Guernsey and Mark Cavendish, track cycling silver medalist and Peter Kennaugh, gold winning team pursuiter, from the Isle of Man.

British Overseas Territories:

Some notable British Olympians have come from British Overseas Territories, though some have transferred sporting allegiance to England for Commonwealth Games purposes afterwards. Such a switch is not necessary to represent Team GB at the Olympic Games: Examples include Olympic bronze medalist sprinter Zharnel Hughes and long jumper Shara Proctor, both originally from Anguilla, and Delano Williams, another sprinter from Turks and Caicos Islands.

Note – IOC 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, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. While the territories of British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory and South 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, not competes at the Commonwealth Games.

Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories athletes for Team GB

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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:

Some more have participated in Team GB after switching Commonwealth Games eligibility mid-career from their territories to England before the Olympic Games, including:

  • Shara Proctor (represented Anguilla until 2011, entered the Olympic Games in 2016)
  • Zharnel Hughes (represented Anguilla until 2011, entered the Olympic Games in 2016)
  • Delano Williams (represented Turks and Caicos Islands until 2012, entered the Olympic Games in 2016)

British sports bodies associated with the BOA

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Role

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The BOA is one of 206 National Committees (NOCs) currently recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC leads the promotion of Olympism in accordance with the Olympic Charter.

Working with the national governing bodies of each sport, the BOA selects Team 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 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 GB&NI, 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.

Structure

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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, and archery. 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 Chairman, and a Vice-Chairman, 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 present (2022) chief office holders are:

Former Chairmen

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Founding

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The BOA's origins pre-date the International Olympic movement and its governing body, the International Olympic Committee.

It traces its roots back to the National 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 in physical education through Olympian festivals. The NOA came about mainly through the efforts of John Hulley of Liverpool (Chairman), Dr William Penny Brookes (of Much Wenlock) and E G Ravenstein (president of the German Gymnastic Society of London).[5] It took the existing Olympian Games of Much Wenlock as its example, thus the NOA Games "were open to all comers" and not just the products of Britain'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.[6]

Arms

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Coat of arms of British Olympic Association
Notes
[7]
Adopted
27 April 2016
Crest
On a Helm with a Wreath Argent, Gules and Azure: Within a Coronet comprising a Rim set with six Batons erect Or between Roundels alternately of Silver Gold and Bronze proper a Lion statant guardant Gules crowned with a Laurel Wreath the dexter forepaw raised and holding a Torch enflamed Or.
Escutcheon
Quarterly Gules and Azure two Leeks in pale that in base reversed and conjoined at the fess point to two Thistles in fess two Roses in bend and two Flax Flowers in bend sinister all with heads outwards and slipped and leaved Or the whole enfiling four Links of Chain interlaced in a square Argent.
Supporters
On either side a Lion guardant that on the dexter Azure that on the sinister Gules each crowned with a Laurel Wreath and holding in the exterior forepaw a Torch enflamed Or both upon a Compartment comprising a Grassy Mount Vert.
Motto
IUNCTI IN UNO

See also

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Further reading

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  • Llewellyn, Matthew P (2012). Rule Britannia: Nationalism, Identity and the Modern Olympic Games. Routledge. ISBN 9780415663908

References

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  1. ^ Ford, Emily (28 November 2024). "Katherine Grainger is first female Olympic chair". BBC News. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
  2. ^ https://www.gov.wales/bydtermcymru/search/term/25964692 [bare URL]
  3. ^ "Sir Hugh Robertson Elected As Chairman Of The British Olympic Association". British Olympic Association. 24 November 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  4. ^ "Annamarie Phelps CBE has become Vice-Chair of the British Olympic Association". British Olympic Association. 23 February 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  5. ^ The Liverpool Mercury, 7 November 1865
  6. ^ National Olympian Association, The John Hulley Memorial Fund
  7. ^ "'The Team GB coat of arms'". Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
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