Great Britain at The Olympics

Great Britain At The Olympics

Great Britain is the team that sends athletes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) plus the three Crown dependencies and all but three of the British overseas territories, to the Olympic Games. It is organised by the British Olympic Association (BOA) as the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. While the BOA and the overall games organizers the International Olympic Committee (IOC) both refer to the team as Great Britain, allocating them the IOC country code GBR, the BOA also currently uses the brand name Team GB for the team, explaining that Team GB is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team.

Great Britain was one of 14 teams to compete in the first Games, the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, and is one of only three nations (France and Switzerland are the others) to have competed at every Summer and Winter Olympic Games (although it did not send an official team to the 1904 Summer Olympics). Athletes representing Great Britain have won 780 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, and another 22 at the Winter Olympic Games. Great Britain is the only team to have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Games.

The most successful British Olympians by gold medals won are Chris Hoy who won six gold medals in track cycling and Steve Redgrave, who won five gold medals in rowing. Hoy and fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins have the most overall medals by British Olympians with seven each.

Chris Hoy is the most successful cyclist in Olympic history and Ben Ainslie, with four golds at consecutive Games and a silver medal, is the most successful sailor in Olympic history.