Great Britain at the Olympics
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, referred to as simply "Great Britain", has been represented at every modern Olympic Games. As of the 2024 Summer Olympics, it is third in the all-time Summer Olympic medal table by overall number of medals, and fourth in number of gold medals won. London hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
Athletes from the United Kingdom compete as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, branded "Team GB". The team is organised by the British Olympic Association, the National Olympic Committee for the UK. Team GB also represents the United Kingdom's Overseas Territories, and the three Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man. Athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to compete for either Great Britain or Ireland, with most choosing Ireland. The use of "Great Britain" over "United Kingdom" has faced criticism in Northern Ireland.
British athletes have won a combined total of 1,015 medals at the Olympic Games; 981 of those medals were won at the Summer Olympics, where Team GB is the only team to have won at least one gold medal at every games. Team GB is also the only team to have won at least one athletics medal at every Summer Olympic Games. The team has been less successful at the Winter Olympics, winning 34 medals, 12 of them gold. The United Kingdom finished in first place on the medals table at the 1908 games, placed second at the 2016 games, and third at the 1900, 1912, 1920, and 2012 games.
The most successful British Olympian by gold medals and total medals won is Sir Jason Kenny, who has won seven gold medals and nine overall, all in track cycling. The cyclist Dame Laura Kenny and the dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin share the record for the most medals won by a female British athlete, with six each; Kenny's five gold medals are the female British record. The most successful Winter Olympian from Team GB is Lizzy Yarnold, with two gold medals in the women's skeleton.
Eligibility
As the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom, the British Olympic Association membership encompasses the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom, plus the three Crown Dependencies, and all but three of the British Overseas Territories.Representatives of the devolved Northern Ireland government and others in the region, however, have objected to the name "Team GB" as discriminatory, and have called for it to be renamed as "Team UK" to make it clearer that Northern Ireland is included on the team.
Under the IOC charter, the Olympic Federation of Ireland is also responsible for the entire island of Ireland. However, athletes from Northern Ireland can elect to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympics, as people of Northern Ireland. A number of Northern Irish-born athletes, particularly in boxing, have won medals for Ireland at the Games, and a small number of athletes from Northern Ireland have represented both Team GB and Team Ireland, most recently swimming gold-medalist Jack McMillan.
Usually most of Northern Ireland's athletes at the Olympics compete for Team Ireland. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, 6 athletes from Northern Ireland, represented Great Britain, while 31 athletes represented Ireland. In 2016, eight represented Great Britain, and 21 represented Ireland.
All athletes from the whole of Ireland were included in the Great Britain team up until the 1920 Olympics as the entire island was part of the United Kingdom at that time, and the Team GB claim to have won at least one gold at every Summer Games is partially founded on a single Irish athlete, Tom Kiely who won gold in the 1904 St. Louis games. While Kiely himself objected to the designation, considering himself simply Irish, Olympic historians recognise his medal as a medal for Great Britain and Ireland, thus maintaining the unique British record.
The existence of a Great Britain team has been criticised by Welsh and Scottish nationalists, advocating for separate Welsh and Scottish Olympic teams instead.
Other nations that formed part of the then British Empire, however, were represented separately even before full independence in a variety of ways, either as fledgling nations such as South Africa and India, or occasionally in regional teams such as Australasia and British West Indies.
Hosted games
The United Kingdom has hosted the Summer Games on three occasions – 1908, 1948 and 2012, all in London – second only to the United States. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Great Britain became the first team to win more medals at a Summer Olympics immediately after hosting a Summer Olympics; they won 67 medals overall, coming in second place in the medal table ahead of China, two more than in London in 2012. This success came 20 years after finishing 36th in the medal table, after winning just one gold and fourteen other medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, which led to significant changes in the management and funding of British sports and facilities.London also won the right to host the 1944 Summer Olympics. However, the 1944 games were cancelled due to the Second World War.
Successful bids
Unsuccessful bids
Potential future bids
In February 2019, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced plans to bid for the 2032 or 2036 Olympics, which was backed by UK Sport. However, it has been speculated that either Manchester or Birmingham may be in the frame to host future games, rather than London. In July 2021, the 2032 Games were awarded to Brisbane.In July 2024, Khan revealed he was to attend the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and would use the opportunity to lobby members of the British Olympic Association and the Prime Minister into hosting the 2040 Olympics. He claimed London could host the "greenest games ever" by reusing venues from the 2012 games including the London Stadium, the London Aquatics Centre, Lee Valley Velopark and Copper Box Arena. The idea was backed by Tom Daley, Team GB diver, commenting that "London is one of the few cities on the planet where you would be able to host the games tomorrow".
A 2025 proposal by the Heseltine Institute would see Manchester and Liverpool launch a joint bid for the 2040 Games - this idea was backed by the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who described the prospect of the two cities hosting the games as an opportunity to 'rebalance the country'.
Medals
Medals by Summer Games
- Art competitions are not included in the medal table above, as they were non-sports events formerly part of the Olympic Games. won a total of [|nine art competition medals], across the 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, and 1948 Summer Olympics.
Medals by Winter Games
Medals by summer sport
''This table excludes seven medals – one gold, two silver, and four bronze – awarded in the 1908 and 1920 figure skating events.''Medals by winter sport
''This table includes seven medals – one gold, two silver, and four bronze – awarded in the 1908 and 1920 figure skating events.''List of Winter Olympic medallists
This list also contains the medals won in winter sports at the 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympics, which are not counted in the overall winter Olympic total.| Medal | Name | Games | Sport | Event |
| Madge Syers | 25px Figure skating | Ladies' singles | ||
| William Jackson Thomas Murray | 25px Curling | Men's event | ||
| Great Britain men's national ice hockey team | 25px Ice hockey | Men's event | ||
| Jeannette Altwegg | 25px Figure skating | Ladies' singles | ||
| Robin Dixon Tony Nash | 25px Bobsleigh | Two man | ||
| 25px Figure skating | Men's singles | |||
| 25px Figure skating | Men's singles | |||
| | 25px Figure skating | Ice dancing | ||
| | 25px Curling | Women's event | ||
| Amy Williams | 25px Skeleton | Women's event | ||
| Lizzy Yarnold | 25px Skeleton | Women's event | ||
| Lizzy Yarnold | 25px Skeleton | Women's event | ||
| 25px Curling | Women's event | |||
| Phyllis Johnson James H. Johnson | 25px Figure skating | Pairs Skating | ||
| Arthur Cumming | 25px Figure skating | Men's special figures | ||
| Thomas Arnold | 25px Bobsleigh | Four man | ||
| 25px Figure skating | Ladies' singles | |||
| 25px Skeleton | Women's event | |||
| David Murdoch Greg Drummond Scott Andrews Michael Goodfellow Tom Brewster | 25px Curling | Men's event | ||
| 25px Curling | Men's event | |||
| Geoffrey Hall-Say | 25px Figure skating | Men's special figures | ||
| Dorothy Greenhough-Smith | 25px Figure skating | Ladies' singles | ||
| Madge Syers Edgar Syers | 25px Figure skating | Pairs skating | ||
| Phyllis Johnson Basil Williams | 25px Figure skating | Pairs Skating | ||
| 25px Figure skating | Ladies' singles | |||
| Great Britain men's national ice hockey team | 25px Ice hockey | Men's event | ||
| 25px Skeleton | Men's event | |||
| Charles Green | 25px Bobsleigh | Four man | ||
| 25px Figure skating | Ladies' singles | |||
| 25px Skeleton | Men's event | |||
| 25px Short track speed skating | Men's 500m | |||
| | 25px Figure skating | Ice dancing | ||
| | 25px Bobsleigh | Four man | ||
| 25px Skeleton | Women's event | |||
| 25px Snowboarding | Women's slopestyle | |||
| Eve Muirhead Anna Sloan Vicki Adams Claire Hamilton Lauren Gray | 25px Curling | Women's event | ||
| John James Jackson Bruce Tasker Stuart Benson Joel Fearon | 25px Bobsleigh | Four man | ||
| 25px Skeleton | Men's event | |||
| 25px Skeleton | Women's event | |||
| 25px Snowboarding | Men's Big Air | |||
| 25px Freestyle skiing | Women's slopestyle |