National Olympic Committee
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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.
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National Olympic Committees
As of 2015 there are 206 NOCs: Each of the 193 member states of the United Nations; United Nations observer state Palestine; the Cook Islands, an state in free association with New Zealand whose capacity to participate in international organizations has been recognized by the United Nations Secretariat;[1][2] and two states with limited recognition, Kosovo and Taiwan (designated as Chinese Taipei by the IOC).
There are also nine dependent territories with NOCs:
- Four territories of the United States: American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands (designated just Virgin Islands by the IOC).
- Three British Overseas Territories: Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, and Cayman Islands.
- One territory from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean: Aruba. The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee was dissolved at the 123rd IOC session in July 2011 as the Netherlands Antilles ceased to exist on 10 October 2010.[3][4]
- Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.
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Sovereign states with multiple Olympic committees
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| China | |
| Netherlands | |
| United Kingdom | |
| United States | |
Prior to 1996, rules for recognising 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 state by the international community.[5] Since the rule does not apply retroactively, the dependent territories 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 states which thus qualify to participate in the future are the Vatican City, a UN observer state, and Niue, a state in free association with New Zealand like the Cook Islands. Other disputed states face obstacles to being recognized by the IOC. Dependent territories such as Curaçao, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Macau and New Caledonia can no longer be recognised by the IOC. Athletes from those territories can only participate in the Olympics as part of their parent nation's national team.
Divisions
The NOCs are all members of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), which is also split among five continental associations:
| Continent | Association | NOCs | Oldest NOC | Newest NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa | 54 |  Egypt (1910) |
 South Sudan (2015) |
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| Pan American Sports Organization | 41 |  United States (1894) |
 Dominica (1993) Saint Kitts and Nevis (1993) Saint Lucia (1993) |
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| Olympic Council of Asia | 44[6] |  Japan (1912) |
 Timor-Leste (2003) |
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| European Olympic Committees | 50 |  France (1894) |
 Kosovo (2014) |
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| Oceania National Olympic Committees | 17 |  Australia (1895) |
 Tuvalu (2007) |
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See the article for each continental association for the complete lists of all NOCs.
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. Former states (e.g. The Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, 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
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<references />, or <references group="..." />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. The Faroe Islands have a recognised National Paralympic Committee.[7]
Other existing countries/regions with unrecognized Olympic committees: Catalonia,[8] Gibraltar,[9] French Polynesia,[10]Niue,[11] Somaliland,[12] New Caledonia,[13] Kurdistan,[14][15] Northern Cyprus,[16] Abkhazia,[17] Native Americans,[18][19] the Northern Mariana Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, and Turks & Caicos Islands.[20]South Ossetia intends to establish a National Olympic Committee too.[21] Representatives from the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic would take part in Armenia’s National Olympic Committee.[22]
See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Olympic Committees. |
References
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- Association of National Olympic Committees website
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| Asia |
OCA – Olympic Council of Asia
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| Oceania | ||
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- ↑ The OCA includes 45 NOCs; the Macau Sports and Olympic Committee is not recognized by the IOC and Macau does not compete at the Olympic Games.
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- ↑ http://www.sportcountries.org/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/conference_2008/INSCRITS_DEFINITIU.pdf[dead link]
- ↑ {{Turkish Cypriots denied access to London Olympics 2012}}
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