The modern Olympic Games are the world's leading international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games are considered the world's foremost sports competition, with more than 200 teams, representing sovereign states and territories, participating. By default, the Games generally substitute for any world championships during the year in which they take place. The Olympic Games are held every four years. Since 1994, they have alternated between the Summer and Winter Olympics every two years during the four-year Olympiad.
Athletes from Belarus began their Olympic participation at the 1952 Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991, Belarus, along with four of the other fourteen former Soviet republics, competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics as the Unified Team. Later in 1992, Belarus joined eleven republics to compete as the Unified Team at the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain. Two years later, Belarus competed for the first time as an independent nation in the 1994 Winter Olympics, held in Lillehammer, Norway.
Association football is the most popular sport in Kuwait, followed by basketball and cricket. Additional sports on the rise in Kuwait include powerboating, handball, field hockey, rugby union, and shooting.
Athletes from Germany (GER) have appeared in 27 of the 30 Summer Olympic Games, having competed in all Games except those of 1920, 1924 and 1948, when they were not permitted to do so. Germany has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice; the 1936 Games in Berlin, and the 1972 Games in Munich.
The all-time medal table for all Olympic Games from 1896 to 2024, including Summer Olympic Games, Winter Olympic Games, and a combined total of both, is tabulated below. These Olympic medal counts do not include the 1906 Intercalated Games which are no longer recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as official Games. The IOC itself does not publish all-time tables, and publishes unofficial tables only per single Games. This table was thus compiled by adding up single entries from the IOC database.
Russia, referred to by its formal name; the Russian Federation, by the International Olympic Committee, has competed at the modern Olympic Games on many occasions, but as different nations in its history. As the Russian Empire, the nation first competed at the 1900 Games, and returned again in 1908 and 1912. After the Russian revolution in 1917, and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, it would be thirty years until Russian athletes once again competed at the Olympics, as the Soviet Union at the 1952 Summer Olympics. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia competed as part of the Unified Team in 1992, and finally returned once again as Russia at the 1994 Winter Olympics.
Athletes from Germany (GER) have appeared in only 20 of the 22 editions of the Winter Olympic Games as they were not invited to two events after the World Wars, in 1924 and 1948. Germany hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and had been selected to host in 1940 again.
Kuwait has competed in 12 Summer Games. To date, Kuwait has won three bronze Olympic medals.
Kosovo made its Olympic debut as a member state in 2016. Its team is organized by the Olympic Committee of Kosovo (OCK), created in 1992 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 9 December 2014. It won its first medal in its debut appearance in 2016, when judoka Majlinda Kelmendi took gold in the women's -52 kg category. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Nora Gjakova won gold in the women's judo -57 kg class, and Distria Krasniqi won gold in the women's judo -48 kg class.
The former State Union of Serbia and Montenegro was represented at the Olympic Games on six occasions between 1996 and 2006, when the union was dissolved and Montenegro and Serbia each declared full independence.
The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics, officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games Chinese: 第二届夏季青年奧林匹克运动会; pinyin: Dì'èrjiè Xiàjì Qīngnián Àolínpǐkè Yùndònghuì, and commonly known as Nanjing 2014, were the second Summer Youth Olympic Games, an international sports, education and cultural festival for teenagers, held from 16 to 28 August 2014 in Nanjing, China. These were the first Youth Olympic Games held in China, making it the first country to host both regular and Youth Olympics following the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Kuwait Olympic Committee is the National Olympic Committee representing Kuwait and organising the Kuwait Olympic team.
Kuwait competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's twelfth consecutive appearance at the Olympics.
Athletes have competed as independent Olympians at the Olympic Games for various reasons, including political transition, international sanctions, suspensions of National Olympic Committees, and compassion. Independent athletes have come from North Macedonia, East Timor, South Sudan and Curaçao following geopolitical changes in the years before the Olympics, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a result of international sanctions, from India and Kuwait due to the suspensions of their National Olympic Committees, and from Russia for mass violations of anti-doping rules and, in addition to Belarus, the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
Independent Olympic athletes competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. The team was composed of Kuwaiti athletes who competed under the Olympic flag, as the Kuwait Olympic Committee had been suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the second time in five years due to governmental interference.
The Refugee Olympic Team is a group made up of independent Olympic participants who are refugees. In March 2016, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced the creation of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team, as a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world in order to raise global awareness of the scale of the migrant crisis in Europe. In September 2017, the IOC established the Olympic Refuge Foundation to supporting refugees over the long term.
The Guatemalan Olympic Committee is a non-profit organization serving as the National Olympic Committee of Guatemala and a part of the International Olympic Committee and PASO. It was formed in 1947 and recognized by the IOC that same year.
Adriana Ruano Oliva is a Guatemalan sports shooter and Olympic champion. She competed in the women's trap event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She won the gold medal and set a new Olympic record in the women's trap event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, the first ever gold medal for Guatemala at the Olympics.
Iran competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris from 26 July to 11 August 2024. Since the nation's return in 1948 after having made their debut in 1900, Iranian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games except for Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984, citing political reasons.
Afghanistan competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, its first Olympics since the return of Taliban rule in 2021 and the self-imposed exile of many of the country's leading athletes, especially women. It also marked the nation's sixteenth appearance in these games since 1936. The country did not participate in 1952, 1976, 1984, 1992, and 2000. Afghanistan has taken part in every recent Olympics since 2004. Afghanistan failed to win a medal at the Paris Olympics 2024.
