List of IOC country codes

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The flag of the international Olympic movement

The flag of the international Paralympic movement

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses three-letter abbreviation country codes[1] 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 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 codes. Other sporting organisations like FIFA use similar country codes to refer to their respective teams, but with some differences. Still others, such as the Commonwealth Games Federation or Association of Tennis Professionals, use the IOC list verbatim.

Because French is the first reference language of the IOC, followed by English, followed by the host country’s language when necessary, most IOC codes have their origins from French or English.[2][3]

History[edit]

The 1956 Winter Olympics and 1960 Summer Olympics were the first Games to feature Initials of Nations to refer to each NOC in the published official reports.[4] However, the codes used at the next few Games were often based on the host nation’s language (e.g., GIA for Japan at the 1956 Winter Olympics and 1960 Summer Olympics, both held in Italy, from Italian Giappone) or based on the French name for the nation (e.g., AUT for Austria, 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, division and unification of Germany, breakup of Yugoslavia, 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 Committees (NPCs) at the Paralympic Games requires standardised IOC codes, such as Macau (or as “Macau, China” since 1999) and the Faroe Islands, coded MAC and FRO respectively.[5][6]

Current NOCs[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

Codes still in use[edit]

Fourteen historical NOCs or teams have codes that are still used in the IOC results database[9] to refer to past medal winners from these teams.

Obsolete codes[edit]

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 for the 1992 Games, reflecting the change in designation from Holland.
  • IRN was changed to IRI for Iran for the 1992 Games, reflecting the change in designation to Islamic Republic of Iran.

Special codes for Olympics[edit]

Code Nation/team Years Notes
ANZ  Australasia 1908–1912 Used in the IOC’s medal database[9] to identify the team from Australasia, composed of athletes from both Australia and New Zealand for the 1908 and 1912 Games. Both nations competed separately by 1920.
COR  Korea
from French Corée		 2018 Used for the unified Korean women’s ice hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics.[11]
EOR  Refugee Olympic Team
from French Équipe olympique des réfugiés		 2020 Used for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the 2020 Summer Olympics for athletes to compete who have been displaced from their home countries. The IOC code was changed from ROT which was used in 2016.
EUA  United Team of Germany
from French Équipe unifiée d’Allemagne		 1956–1964 Used in the IOC’s medal database[9] to identify the United Team of Germany, composed of athletes representing the NOCs of both East Germany and West Germany for the 1956–1964 Games. The team was simply known as Germany in the official reports for those six games at the time.
EUN  Unified Team
from French Équipe unifiée		 1992 Used in 1992 (both Summer and Winter Games) for the Unified Team, composed of athletes from most of the ex-republics of the Soviet Union that chose to compete as a unified team. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania entered separately in 1992, whereas Russia and eleven other post-Soviet nations competed independently for the first time in 1994 and/or 1996.
IOP  Independent Olympic Participants Used for independent Olympic participants at the 1992 Summer Olympics as a designation used for athletes from FR Yugoslavia who could not compete as a team due to United Nations sanctions. At the 1992 Summer Olympics IOP was used as a designation for athletes from the Republic of Macedonia too. IOP was also used during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi by Indian athletes due to the Indian Olympic Association suspension.
IOA  Independent Olympic Athletes Used for Individual Olympic Athletes in 2000,[12] a designation used for athletes from Timor-Leste before the formation of its NOC. IOA was used again in the 2012 Games, when it stood for Independent Olympic Athletes,[13] comprising athletes from the former Netherlands Antilles and a runner from South Sudan. The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee’s membership from the IOC was withdrawn the previous year, and South Sudan had not yet formed an NOC at the time. IOA was used again in 2016 for athletes from Kuwait as a result of the suspension of its National Olympic Committee.[14]
IOC  Athletes from Kuwait 2010–2012 Used as the country code for Athletes from Kuwait, when the Kuwait Olympic Committee was suspended the first time, at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, the 2010 Asian Games and the 2011 Asian Winter Games; for the second suspension in 2015–2017, athletes from Kuwait were also competing in several international competitions under the IOC flag, but this time in the team of Individual Olympic Athletes (IOA), including (but not only) in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
MIX  Mixed-NOCs 2010– Used as the country code for Mixed NOCs at the Youth Olympics.[15][16]
OAR  Olympic Athletes from Russia 2018 Used for Olympic Athletes from Russia competing as neutral athletes due to the state-sponsored doping scandal.[17]
ROC ROC
from the abbreviation for Russian Olympic Committee		 2020– Used for Russian Olympic Committee athletes at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter Olympics following the sanctions due to the state-sponsored doping scandal.[18][19] The delegation used a flag depicting the logo of the Russian Olympic Committee.
ROT  Refugee Olympic Team 2016 Used for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics for athletes to compete who have been displaced from their home countries.[20]
ZZX  Mixed team 1896–1904 Used in the IOC’s medal database[9] to identify medals won by mixed teams of athletes from multiple nations (such as the combination of France and Great Britain, for example), a situation that happened several times in the Games of 1896, 1900, and 1904.

Special codes for Paralympics[edit]

Special codes for World Games[edit]

The World Games 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, under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “Olympic Documents – Athletes, Olympic Games, IOC and More” (PDF). Olympic.org. 18 May 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
  2. ^ As per rule 24 of the Olympic Charter, which writes “The official languages of the IOC are French and English. In the case of divergence between the French and English texts of the Olympic Charter and any other IOC document, the French text shall prevail unless expressly provided otherwise in writing”
  3. ^ “Le français, langue officielle des JO”. Linternaute.com. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  4. ^ Mallon, Bill; Karlsson, Ove (May 2004). “IOC and OCOG Abbreviations for NOCs” (PDF). Journal of Olympic History. 12 (2): 25–28. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  5. ^ Faroe Islands Archived 2012-12-04 at archive.today
  6. ^ Macau, China Archived 2013-01-03 at archive.today
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l “IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 Statistics Handbook” (PDF). Iaaf-ebooks.s3.amazonaws.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  8. ^ Official name given to the Republic of China for international organizations
  9. ^ a b c d “Olympic Medal Winners”. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  10. ^ “MUNICH 1972 SHOOTING 50M PISTOL 60 SHOTS MIXED RESULTS”. Olympic.org.
  11. ^ IOC. “Olympic Korean Peninsula Declaration” (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
  12. ^ “The Results” (PDF). la84foundation.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27.
  13. ^ “Independent Olympic Athletes”. London2012.com. London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 2013-02-28.
  14. ^ “Independent Olympic Athletes”. Rio2016.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  15. ^ “Mixed NOCs”. Archived from the original on 2014-02-25.
  16. ^ “Medals – Youth Olympic Games, Buenos Aires 2018 | Olympic Channel”. Archived from the original on 2019-07-12. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  17. ^ “IOC suspends Russian NOC and creates a path for clean individual athletes to compete in PyeongChang 2018 under the Olympic Flag”. Olympic.org. 24 January 2018.
  18. ^ “Russian team to be branded as ‘ROC’ during Tokyo Olympics as part of doping sanctions”. The Japan Times. 20 February 2021. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  19. ^ “Olympics: Russia to compete under ROC acronym in Tokyo as part of doping sanctions”. Reuters. Reuters. 2021-02-19. Archived from the original on 2021-02-20. Retrieved 2021-02-20.
  20. ^ Rio2016.org, 3 June 2016 Archived 2016-08-05 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ a b “Russian and Belarusian athletes to still receive medals at Beijing 2022”.
  22. ^ “World Games 2022: Qualified Nations List”. International World Games Association. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  23. ^ Glennon, Michael (2020-09-05). “Ireland sacrifice place for good of ‘Medicine Game’“.
  24. ^ “World Lacrosse Announces Teams for Men’s Lacrosse Competition at TWG 2022; Iroquois Nationals Accept Invitation to Compete”. TWG 2022 Birmingham. 7 Sep 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  25. ^ Hamby, Bo (October 1, 2020). “Ireland Lacrosse Bows Out Of 2022 World Games So Iroquois Nationals Can Play”. National Public Radio.

Sources[edit]