British Olympic Association


The British Olympic Association is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It represents the four countries of the United Kingdom, but also represents the athletes of the three Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man and eight of the eleven inhabited British Overseas Territories. The British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and Cayman Islands each have their own national Olympic associations, founded before the modern rules restricting the recognition of national Olympic committees to recognised states.
Athletes from Northern Ireland are also entitled, as of right, to represent 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. The four constituent countries of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories and the three Crown Dependencies organise national teams separately to compete at the Commonwealth Games, and the BOA is not involved.

Founding

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, 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, Dr William Penny Brookes and E G Ravenstein. 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 and ethos were inherited by the National Physical Recreation Society 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.

BOA members and sporting bodies

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 Great Britain.

Members

The association comprises members from the following countries:
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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. 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 members from all four constituent countries: an Englishman, a Northern Irishman, a Scotsman and a Welshman.
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. The inhabited British Overseas Territories under the jurisdiction of the BOA are:
IOC rules currently do not allow dependent territories to obtain recognition for National Olympic Committees. 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, nor competes at the Commonwealth Games.

Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories athletes for Team GB

Among Crown Dependencies and current-day Overseas Territories, only a few have been represented on Team GB since 1930 while retaining citizenship of, and Commonwealth Games eligibility for their territories. These include :
  • Cameron Chalmers
  • Alastair Chalmers, his brother
  • Alex Coleborn
  • Mark Cavendish
  • Peter Kennaugh
  • Alexandra Jackson
  • Marie Purvis
  • Jonathan Bellis
  • Georgina Cassar
Some more have participated in Team GB after switching Commonwealth Games eligibility mid-career from their territories to England before the Olympic Games, including:
The BOA is one of 206 National Committees currently recognised by the International Olympic Committee. 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 sponsorship, fundraising and events.
Great Britain & Northern Ireland is one of only five National Olympic Committees 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.

Structure

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 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:
The board of the BOA also includes a number of athletes' representatives and three independent non-executive directors.

Former Chairs