The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses three-letter abbreviation country codes 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.
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. 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.
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.
|Code||National Olympic Committee||Other codes used||Link|
|ANG||Angola||ANO (As referenced in IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 Statistics Handbook)|||
|ANT||Antigua and Barbuda|||
|AUT||Austria||current code from French Autriche|||
|BIH||Bosnia and Herzegovina||BSH (1992 S), BOS|||
|BIZ||Belize||HBR (1968–1972) as British Honduras Also BHO|||
|BUR||Burkina Faso||VOL (1972–1984) as Upper Volta Also BKF|||
|CAF||Central African Republic||AFC (1968)|||
|CGO||Republic of the Congo|||
|CHN||China||PRC (1952 S) as People's Republic of China|||
current code from French Côte d'Ivoire
|COD||Democratic Republic of the Congo|||
|CRC||Costa Rica||COS (1964)|||
previous codes taken from Italian Danimarca, French Danemark and Spanish Dinamarca
previous codes taken from Italian Repubblica Araba Unita, French République Arabe Unie and Spanish República Árabe Unida
|ESA||El Salvador||SAL (1964–1976)|||
current code taken from French Espagne or Spanish España
|FIJ||Fiji||FIG (1960) from Italian Figi|||
|FSM||Federated States of Micronesia|||
|HKG||Hong Kong, China||HOK (1960–1968)|||
current code from Islamic Republic of Iran
|IRL||Ireland||current code taken from French Irlande|||
current code taken from French Islande, Icelandic Ísland or Spanish Islandia
|ISV||Virgin Islands||current code taken from French Îles Vierges (des États-Unis)|||
|IVB||British Virgin Islands||current code taken from French Îles Vierges britanniques|||
previous code taken from Italian Corea, French Corée and Spanish Corea
current code from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
|LTU||Lithuania||LIT (1992 W)|||
|MAR||Morocco||MRC (1964); current code from French Maroc|||
|MGL||Mongolia||MON (1968 W)|||
|MKD||North Macedonia||current code taken from Macedonian Македонија/Makedonija|||
|PNG||Papua New Guinea||
current code from People's Republic of Korea
current code from French Roumanie
|RSA||South Africa||SAF (1960–1972)
current code from Republic of South Africa
|SKN||Saint Kitts and Nevis|||
|SLE||Sierra Leone||SLA (1968)|||
|SMR||San Marino||SMA (1960–1964)|||
|STP||São Tomé and Príncipe|||
current code from French Suisse
|SYR||Syria||SIR (1968) from Spanish Siria|||
|TLS||East Timor||current code taken from Timor Leste|||
|TTO||Trinidad and Tobago||
|UAE||United Arab Emirates|||
|VIN||Saint Vincent and the Grenadines|||
|ZAM||Zambia||NRH (1964) as Northern Rhodesia|||
|ZIM||Zimbabwe||RHO (1960–1972) as Rhodesia|||
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.
|Code||National Paralympic Committee||Link|
|MAC||Macau, China||Associação Recreativa dos Deficientes de Macau|
|FRO||Faroe Islands||The Faroese Sport Organisation for Disabled|
Historic NOCs and teams
Codes still in use
Fourteen historical NOCs or teams have codes that are still used in the IOC results database to refer to past medal winners from these teams.
|Code||Nation/Team||Other codes used|
code from French Antilles hollandaises
|BWI||British West Indies|
|EUA||United Team of Germany||GER (1956–1964)|
code taken from French Équipe unifiée d'Allemagne
|EUN||Unified Team||code from the French Équipe unifiée or Spanish Equipo Unificado|
code FRG taken from Federal Republic of Germany
|GDR||East Germany||ADE (1968) from Spanish Alemania Democrática|
code GDR taken from German Democratic Republic
|SCG||Serbia and Montenegro||code from Serbian Србија и Црна Гора / Srbija i Crna Gora|
code taken from French Tchécoslovaquie
|URS||Soviet Union||SOV (1968 W)|
code from French Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques (URSS)
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.
|BIR||Burma||1948–1988||Now Myanmar (MYA)|
|CEY||Ceylon||1948–1972||Now Sri Lanka (SRI)|
|DAH||Dahomey||1964–1976||Now Benin (BEN)|
|GUI||British Guiana||1948–1964||Now Guyana (GUY).|
The code former GUI has been reassigned to Guinea (GUI) in 1965 when its new NOC was recognized by the IOC and used publicly in their first competed games in 1968. All formerly known by BGU
|HBR||British Honduras||1968–1972||Now Belize (BIZ)|
|IHO|| Dutch East Indies
code from French Indes orientales hollandaises
|1934–1938||Now Indonesia (INA)|
|KHM||Khmer Republic||1972–1976||Now Cambodia (CAM)|
|MAL||Malaya||1956–1960||Competed independently prior to the formation of Malaysia in 1963.|
Now Malaysia (MAS)
|NRH||Northern Rhodesia||1964||Now Zambia (ZAM)|
|RAU|| United Arab Republic
code from French République arabe unie
|1960||Now Egypt (EGY) and Syria (SYR)|
|RHO||Rhodesia||1960–1972||Now Zimbabwe (ZIM)|
|ROC||Republic of China||1932–1976||Medal winners from 1948 and earlier display as China (CHN), while medal winners from after 1948 display as Chinese Taipei (TPE) under which the team now competes.|
|SAA||Saar||1952||Competed independently prior to rejoining West Germany (FRG) in 1957|
|UAR||United Arab Republic||1964–1968||Now Egypt (EGY)|
|VOL||Upper Volta||1972–1984||Now Burkina Faso (BUR)|
|YAR|| North Yemen
code from Yemen Arab Republic
|1984–1988||Competed independently prior to Yemeni unification in 1990.|
Now Yemen (YEM)
|YMD|| South Yemen
code from Yemen Democratic Republic
|ZAI||��Zaire||1972–1996||Now Democratic Republic of the Congo (COD)|
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
|ANZ||Australasia||1908–1912||Used in the IOC's medal database 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.|
from French Corée
|2018||Used for the unified Korean women's ice hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Also used when the delegations of the two Korean NOCs enter together during the opening and closing ceremonies.  The Unified Korea flag was used in the 2000 Summer Olympics but they are separate in the NOC code. |
|EUA|| United Team of Germany
from French Équipe unifiée d'Allemagne
|1956–1964||Used in the IOC's medal database 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||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. The Baltic states competed as independent teams in 1992; the other twelve new 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, a designation used for athletes from Timor-Leste prior to the formation of its NOC. IOA was used again in the 2012 Games, when it stood for Independent Olympic Athletes, 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 has not formed an NOC. IOA was used again in 2016 for athletes from Kuwait as a result of the suspension of its National Olympic Committee.|
|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, the 2010 Asian Para 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||2010–2018||Used as the country code for Mixed NOCs at the Youth Olympics.|
|OAR||Olympic Athletes from Russia||2018||Used for Olympic Athletes from Russia competing as neutral athletes due to the state-sponsored doping scandal.|
|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.|
|ZZX||Mixed team||1896–1904||Used in the IOC's medal database 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
|IPP||Independent Paralympic Participants||1992||Used for Independent Paralympic Participants at the 1992 Summer Paralympics as a designation used for athletes from FR Yugoslavia and Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia who could not compete as a team due to United Nations sanctions.|
|IPA||Individual Paralympic Athletes||
||De facto independent East Timor was not yet recognised as a sovereign state, and did not have a recognised National Paralympic Committee.Two athletes from the country gained the opportunity to in the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, but they competed officially as Individual Paralympic Athletes, rather than as representatives of an NPC.|
|API||Refugee Paralympic Team||
||A team consisting of refugee and asylee Paralympic athletes competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. This acronym is the abbreviation of the team name in Brazilian Portuguese and this code is reserved for similar situations that may happen in the future.|
|NPA||Neutral Paralympic Athletes||2018||Used for Neutral Paralympic Athletes competing as neutral athletes due to the state-sponsored doping scandal.|
- Comparison of IOC, FIFA, and ISO 3166 country codes
- List of FIFA country codes
- Lists of National Olympic Committees by continental association:
- List of participating nations at the Summer Olympic Games
- List of participating nations at the Winter Olympic Games
- List of CGF country codes
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