Great Britain at the Olympics
Flag of the United Kingdom
IOC code	GBR
NOC	British Olympic Association
Medals	Gold 274 Silver 299 Bronze 310 Total 883
Summer appearances
1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Winter appearances
1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018
Other related appearances
1906 Intercalated Games  Ireland (1924–present)

Athletes from the United Kingdom, all but three of its overseas territories, and the three Crown dependencies, compete in the Olympic Games as part of the team Great Britain or Team GB. It has sent athletes to every Summer and Winter Games, along with France and Switzerland, since the start of the Olympics' modern era in 1896, including the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics, which were boycotted by a number of other nations on each occasion. From 1896 to 2018 inclusive, Great Britain has won 851 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, and another 32 at the Winter Olympic Games. It is the only national team to have won at least one Gold Medal at every Summer Games, lying third globally in the winning of total medals, surpassed only by the United States and the former Soviet Union, and fourth behind Germany when considering gold medal totals.

It is organised by the British Olympic Association (BOA) as the National Olympic Committee for the UK. While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and BOA both refer to the team as 'Great Britain' and the team uses the brand name Team GB, the BOA explains that it is a contraction of the full title, the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team.^[1] 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 being the others) to have competed at every Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

The most successful British Olympians by gold medals won are Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, who have won six gold (and one silver) medals each in track cycling; two British Olympians come next with five gold medals – fellow cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins, and Sir Steve Redgrave, who won five gold medals in five consecutive Games in rowing, a record for an endurance event. Sailor Sir Ben Ainslie jointly holds the Great Britain record for most individual Olympic gold medals with Chris Hoy and Sir Mo Farah with four, and the most gold medals in a single event with three gold medals (in the Men's Finn class sailing event 2004–2012) - again shared with Jason Kenny (men's team sprint 2008–2016), Steve Redgrave (men's coxless pair 1988–1996) and Ed Clancy (men’s team pursuit 2008-2016). Sir Chris Hoy holds the record for gold medals in different events, having reached the top step in four different disciplines – men's kilo, men's team sprint, men's match sprint and men's kierin.

Cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins has the most overall medals by a British Olympian (and thus often referred to in the media as the "most decorated British Olympian") with eight.^[2]Sir Steve Redgrave is the only British Olympian to win a gold medal in five consecutive Olympic Games, winning his first in 1984 Los Angeles and last in 2000 Sydney. With five golds and a bronze, Redgrave is the most successful Olympic male rower of all time.

The most successful female Olympian for GB is cyclist Laura Trott, who has four gold medals, while the most decorated female Olympians are Katherine Grainger and Kathleen McKane Godfree, with five medals each - one gold and four silver for Grainger, a gold, two silver and two bronze for McKane Godfree. Alongside five time gold medalist Redgrave, Grainger, Ainslie, Wiggins and Jack Beresford are the only British Olympians to win medals of any colour in five successive Games. In 1908, the country finished in the Olympic table in first place for the first and only time in its history; its most successful performance both post-War and away from a home Games was in 2016, finishing second.

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

Great Britain 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 country 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 into the management and funding of British sports and facilities.^[3]

At the Winter Olympics as a non-alpine nation Great Britain has historically been unable to replicate the amount of success they have achieved in the Summer Olympics although in recent years with the expansion of the Winter Olympics to include sports such as Curling, Snowboarding, Skeleton and Freestyle skiing has brought some increased success. Currently Great Britain is the most successful nation in women's skeleton, having won a medal six times, at least one for each time the event has been held, including a gold medal for Amy Williams in 2010, and the same for Lizzy Yarnold in 2014 and 2018. Great Britain enjoyed a period of significant success between 1976 and 1984 in figure skating, winning golds in three successive games on the rink. Prior to the 2014 Games all Britain's Winter Olympic medals had been won in sports performed on ice. Snowboarder Jenny Jones became the first British athlete to win a medal on snow in the 90 years of the winter games when she won a bronze medal in the women's slopestyle event.^[4][5][6] At the 2018 Games, Izzy Atkin won Britain's first skiing medal, winning a bronze in the women's ski slopestyle.^{[7][nb 1]}

The most successful Winter Olympian from Great Britain is Lizzy Yarnold, with two gold medals in the women’s skeleton.

Eligibility[edit]

As the National Olympic Committee (NOC) for the United Kingdom, the British Olympic Association (BOA) membership encompasses the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales), plus the three Crown dependencies (Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey), and all but three of the British overseas territories (Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Bermuda having their own NOCs).

Representatives of the devolved Northern Ireland government from a unionist background, however, have objected to the name "Team GB", and have called for it to be renamed as Team UK to make it clearer that Northern Ireland is included on the team.^[9][10]

Under the IOC charter, the Olympic Council of Ireland is responsible for the entire island of Ireland.^[11] However, athletes from Northern Ireland can elect to represent either the UK or Ireland at the Olympics, as people from Northern Ireland. A number of Northern Ireland born athletes, particularly in boxing, have won medals for Ireland at the Games. Athletes from Ireland represented Great Britain up until the 1920 Olympics while the entire island was part of the United Kingdom.^[12]

Hosted Games[edit]

London is the only city in the UK that has hosted the games, and the only city in the world to have hosted them three times. London also won the right to host the 1944 Summer Olympics. However, the 1944 games were cancelled due to WW2.

Unsuccessful Bids[edit]

Medal tables[edit]

  Host country

Medals by Summer Games[edit] Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank 1896 Athens 8 2 3 2 7 5 1900 Paris 103 15 6 9 30 3 1904 St. Louis 3 1 1 0 2 6 1908 London 676 56 51 39 146 1 1912 Stockholm 293 10 15 16 41 3 1920 Antwerp 204 15 15 13 43 3 1924 Paris 307 9 13 12 34 4 1928 Amsterdam 234 3 10 7 20 11 1932 Los Angeles 74 4 7 5 16 8 1936 Berlin 225 4 7 3 14 10 1948 London 375 3 14 6 23 12 1952 Helsinki 293 1 2 8 11 18 1956 Melbourne 200 6 7 11 24 8 1960 Rome 252 2 6 12 20 12 1964 Tokyo 199 4 12 2 18 10 1968 Mexico City 237 5 5 3 13 10 1972 Munich 310 4 5 9 18 12 1976 Montreal 234 3 5 5 13 13 1980 Moscow 222 5 7 9 21 9 1984 Los Angeles 355 5 11 21 37 11 1988 Seoul 382 5 10 9 24 12 1992 Barcelona 389 5 3 12 20 13 1996 Atlanta 303 1 8 6 15 36 2000 Sydney 310 11 10 7 28 10 2004 Athens 270 9 9 12 30 10 2008 Beijing 313 19 13 19 51 4 2012 London 541 29 17 19 65 3 2016 Rio de Janeiro 366 27 23 17 67 2 2020 Tokyo Future event 2024 Paris Future event 2028 Los Angeles Future event Total 263 295 293 851 3

Medals by Winter Games[edit] Games Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank 1924 Chamonix 45 1 1 2 4 6 1928 St. Moritz 33 0 0 1 1 8 1932 Lake Placid 4 0 0 0 0 – 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen 39 1 1 1 3 7 1948 St. Moritz 62 0 0 2 2 13 1952 Oslo 20 1 0 0 1 8 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo 45 0 0 0 0 – 1960 Squaw Valley 17 0 0 0 0 – 1964 Innsbruck 49 1 0 0 1 11 1968 Grenoble 46 0 0 0 0 – 1972 Sapporo 40 0 0 0 0 – 1976 Innsbruck 50 1 0 0 1 12 1980 Lake Placid 50 1 0 0 1 11 1984 Sarajevo 54 1 0 0 1 11 1988 Calgary 57 0 0 0 0 – 1992 Albertville 54 0 0 0 0 – 1994 Lillehammer 35 0 0 2 2 21 1998 Nagano 33 0 0 1 1 22 2002 Salt Lake City 51 1 0 1 2 18 2006 Turin 40 0 1 0 1 21 2010 Vancouver 50 1 0 0 1 19 2014 Sochi 56 1 1 3 5 19 2018 Pyeongchang 58 1 0 4 5 19 2022 Beijing Future event Total 11 4 17 32 19

Medals by summer sport[edit]   Leading in that sport Sports Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank Athletics 55 80 70 205 3 Cycling 32 30 25 87 3 Rowing 31 24 13 68 3 Sailing 28 19 11 58 1 Boxing 18 13 25 56 3 Tennis 17 14 12 43 2 Swimming 16 28 30 74 7 Shooting 13 15 18 46 6 Equestrian 11 11 13 35 5 Canoeing 5 7 5 17 13 Field hockey 4 2 6 12 4 Water polo 4 0 0 4 3 Wrestling 3 4 10 17 26 Football 3 0 0 3 3 Gymnastics 2 4 9 15 22 Polo 2 3 1 6 1 Archery 2 2 5 9 5 Modern pentathlon 2 2 3 7 6 Rackets 2 2 3 7 1 Tug of war 2 2 1 5 1 Taekwondo 2 1 3 6 6 Triathlon 2 1 2 5 1 Water motorsports 2 0 0 2 1 Fencing 1 8 0 9 18 Diving 1 3 6 10 13 Weightlifting 1 3 3 7 31 Golf 1 1 1 3 2 Cricket 1 0 0 1 1 Judo 0 8 11 19 34 Rugby 0 3 0 3 6 Badminton 0 1 2 3 8 Jeu de paume 0 1 1 2 2 Lacrosse 0 1 0 1 2 Total 262 293 289 844 3 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[edit]   Leading in that sport Sports Gold Silver Bronze Total Rank Figure skating 5 3 7 15 6 Skeleton 3 1 5 9 2 Curling 2 1 1 4 3 Bobsleigh 1 1 3 5 9 Ice hockey 1 0 1 2 5 Snowboarding 0 0 2 2 20 Freestyle skiing 0 0 1 1 20 Short track speed skating 0 0 1 1 12 Total 12 6 21 39 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 medalists[edit]

This list also contains the medals won in winter sports at the 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympics.

Medal	Name(s)	Games	Sport	Event
Gold	Madge Syers	1908 London	Figure Skating	Ladies' singles
Gold	William Jackson Thomas Murray Robin Welsh Laurence Jackson	1924 Chamonix	Curling	Men's event
Gold	Great Britain men's national ice hockey team	1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Ice hockey	Men’s event
Gold	Jeannette Altwegg	1952 Oslo	Figure skating	Ladies' singles
Gold	Robin Dixon Tony Nash	1964 Innsbruck	Bobsleigh	Two man
Gold	John Curry	1976 Innsbruck	Figure skating	Men's singles
Gold	Robin Cousins	1980 Lake Placid	Figure skating	Men’s singles
Gold	Jayne Torvill Christopher Dean	1984 Sarajevo	Figure skating	Ice dancing
Gold	Rhona Martin Deborah Knox Fiona MacDonald Janice Rankin Margaret Morton	2002 Salt Lake City	Curling	Women's event
Gold	Amy Williams	2010 Vancouver	Skeleton	Women’s event
Gold	Lizzy Yarnold	2014 Sochi	Skeleton	Women’s event
Gold	Lizzy Yarnold	2018 Pyeongchang	Skeleton	Women’s event
Silver	Phyllis Johnson James H. Johnson	1908 London	Figure skating	Pairs Skating
Silver	Arthur Cumming	1908 London	Figure skating	Men's special figures
Silver	Ralph Broome Thomas Arnold Alexander Richardson Rodney Soher	1924 Chamonix	Bobsleigh	Four man
Silver	Cecilia Colledge	1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Figure skating	Ladies' singles
Silver	Shelley Rudman	2006 Turin	Skeleton	Women's event
Silver	David Murdoch Greg Drummond Scott Andrews Michael Goodfellow Tom Brewster	2014 Sochi	Curling	Men's event
Bronze	Geoffrey Hall-Say	1908 London	Figure skating	Men's special figures
Bronze	Dorothy Greenhough-Smith	1908 London	Figure skating	Ladies' singles
Bronze	Madge Syers Edgar Syers	1908 London	Figure skating	Pairs skating
Bronze	Phyllis Johnson James H. Johnson	1920 Antwerp	Figure skating	Pairs Skating
Bronze	Ethel Muckelt	1924 Chamonix	Figure skating	Ladies' singles
Bronze	Great Britain men's national ice hockey team	1924 Chamonix	Ice hockey	Men's event
Bronze	David Carnegie	1928 St. Moritz	Skeleton	Men's event
Bronze	Frederick McEvoy James Cardno Guy Dugdale Charles Green	1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Bobsleigh	Four man
Bronze	Jeannette Altwegg	1948 St. Moritz	Figure skating	Ladies' singles
Bronze	John Crammond	1948 St. Moritz	Skeleton	Men's event
Bronze	Nicky Gooch	1994 Lillehammer	Short track speed skating	Men's 500m
Bronze	Jayne Torvill Christopher Dean	1994 Lillehammer	Figure skating	Ice dancing
Bronze	Sean Olsson Dean Ward Courtney Rumbolt Paul Attwood	1998 Nagano	Bobsleigh	Four man
Bronze	Alex Coomber	2002 Salt Lake City	Skeleton	Women's event
Bronze	Jenny Jones	2014 Sochi	Snowboarding	Women's slopestyle
Bronze	Eve Muirhead Anna Sloan Vicki Adams Claire Hamilton Lauren Gray	2014 Sochi	Curling	Women's curling
Bronze	John James Jackson Bruce Tasker Stuart Benson Joel Fearon	2014 Sochi	Bobsleigh	Four man
Bronze	Dominic Parsons	2018 Pyeongchang	Skeleton	Men's event
Bronze	Laura Deas	2018 Pyeongchang	Skeleton	Women's event
Bronze	Billy Morgan	2018 Pyeongchang	Snowboarding	Men's Big Air
Bronze	Izzy Atkin	2018 Pyeongchang	Freestyle skiing	Women's slopestyle

Stripped Medal[edit]

Great Britain's only stripped medal in Olympic history was an Alpine Skiing bronze at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Alain Baxter tested positive for a banned substance, which was claimed to be as a result of Baxter using an inhaler with different chemicals in the United States.

Medal	Name(s)	Games	Sport	Event
Bronze	Alain Baxter	2002 Salt Lake City	Alpine Skiing	Men's slalom

Medals by individual[edit]

Jason Kenny (top) shares the most gold medals of any British Olympian on six with Chris Hoy (2nd from top).
Lizzy Yarnold (bottom) is the most successful British Winter Olympian.

According to official data of the International Olympic Committee. This is a list of people who have won three or more Olympic gold medals for Great Britain. Medals won in the 1906 Intercalated Games are not included. It includes top-three placings in 1896 and 1900, before medals were awarded for top-three placings.

Athlete	Sport	Years	Games	Gender				Total
Chris Hoy	Track cycling	2000–2012	Summer	M	6	1	0	7
Jason Kenny	Track cycling	2008–2016	Summer	M	6	1	0	7
Bradley Wiggins	Track cycling Road cycling	2000–2016	Summer	M	5	1	2	8
Steve Redgrave	Rowing	1984–2000	Summer	M	5	0	1	6
Ben Ainslie	Sailing	1996–2012	Summer	M	4	1	0	5
Mo Farah	Athletics	2012–2016	Summer	M	4	0	0	4
Matthew Pinsent	Rowing	1992–2004	Summer	M	4	0	0	4
Paulo Radmilovic	Water polo Swimming	1908–1920	Summer	M	4	0	0	4
Laura Kenny	Track cycling	2012–2016	Summer	F	4	0	0	4
Jack Beresford	Rowing	1920–1936	Summer	M	3	2	0	5
Charlotte Dujardin	Equestrian	2012–2016	Summer	F	3	1	0	4
Henry Taylor	Swimming	1908–1920	Summer	M	3	0	2	5
Ed Clancy	Track cycling	2008–2016	Summer	M	3	0	1	4
Reginald Doherty	Tennis	1900–1908	Summer	M	3	0	1	4
Richard Meade	Equestrian	1968–1972	Summer	M	3	0	0	3
Pete Reed	Rowing	2008–2016	Summer	M	3	0	0	3
Charles Sydney Smith	Water polo	1908–1920	Summer	M	3	0	0	3
Andrew Triggs Hodge	Rowing	2008–2016	Summer	M	3	0	0	3
George Wilkinson	Water polo	1900–1912	Summer	M	3	0	0	3

• 
  People in bold are still active competitors

In addition to the above, the female British Olympian with the most medals (five) is rower Katherine Grainger who, from 2000-2016 won one gold and four silver medals. Kathleen McKane Godfree also won five medals, but were one gold, two silvers, and two bronzes. Lizzy Yarnold is the most successful British athlete at the Winter Olympics, with two gold medals.

Most successful in their sport[edit]

Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny (both cycling), Ben Ainslie (sailing) Alistair Brownlee (Triathlon) and Lizzy Yarnold (skeleton) are the most successful Olympic competitors in their sports, as of 2018.

Steve Redgrave and Reginald Doherty are the most successful male athletes in their respective sports, rowing and tennis. In addition, Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb with two gold medals in sailing, Nicola Adams in boxing and Stephanie Cook in modern pentathlon) share the position as most successful woman in their respective sports.

Medals by sport[edit]

Alpine skiing[edit]

Archery[edit]

Athletics[edit]

Badminton[edit]

Great Britain has competed in all Badminton events held at the Summer Olympics since badminton made its full debut as an Olympic sport in 1992.

The figures from 1972 do not count towards the total as badminton was a demonstration sport.

Basketball[edit]

Biathlon[edit]

Bobsleigh[edit]

Boxing[edit]

Great Britain made its Olympic boxing debut in 1908.