British Olympic Association
 British Olympic Association logo | |
| National Olympic Committee | |
|---|---|
| Country/Region |
 United Kingdom |
| Code | GBR |
| Created | 1905 |
| Recognized | 1905 |
| Continental Association | EOC |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| President | HRH The Princess Royal |
| Website | TeamGB.com |
| Notes |
Also includes the following dependencies:  Turks and Caicos Islands |
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It represents the Olympic movement and organises the participation of athletes ("Team GB") at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games.
Scope
The association comprises members from the following -
Note - Three British Overseas Territories have their own NOCs and are not connected with the BOA: Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands.
Sovereign Base Areas
Role
The BOA is one of 204 National Committees (NOCs) currently recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 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 fundraising and events.
The United Kingdom (which competes as "Great Britain") is one of only five countries (the others being Australia, France, Greece and Switzerland) which have never failed to be represented at the Summer Olympic Games since 1896. Great Britain, France and Switzerland are the only countries to have been present at all Olympic Winter Games. Great Britain has hosted three Olympic Games, all of them in London: in 1908, 1948 and 2012, which is the highest record for any city.
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 four officers: a President, a Chairman, and two Vice-Chairmen, 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.
- President: HRH The Princess Royal
- Chairman: Lord Coe [1]
- CEO: (vacant)
- Vice Chairmen: Albert Woods, David Hemery
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 (NOA), 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 (Chairman), Dr. William Penny Brookes (of Much Wenlock) and E G Ravenstein (president of the German Gymnastic Society of London).[2] 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 (NPRS) 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.[3]
See also
Further reading
- Rule Britannia: Nationalism, Identity and the Modern Olympic Games by Matthew P. Llewellyn (Routledge 2012)
References
- ↑ "Lord Coe becomes chairman of British Olympic Association". BBC News. 7 November 2012.
- ↑ The Liverpool Mercury, 7 November 1865
- ↑ National Olympian Association, The John Hulley Memorial Fund
External links
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