Olympic movement in Belarus

The National Olympic Committee of Belarus (NOC) was founded in 1991. It is an independent non-government association, with its statutes and role in conformity with the Olympic Charter and the Law of Belarus "On Physical Culture and Sport". Since 1997 President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has been the President of the Committee.

NOC unites 74 organizations including 30 Olympic summer sports federations, 5 Olympic winter sports federations, 21 non-Olympic sports federations, 18 regional sports organizations. NOC Representations have been established in all regional centers of the country.

For the first time Belarusian athletes took part in the Olympic Games in 1952 in Helsinki as members of the USSR Team. These were track and field athletes Anatoly Yulin, Timofei Lunev (400 m hurdles), Mikhail Saltykov (3000 m steeplechase), Mikhail Krivonosov (hammer throwing) and fencers German Bokun and Yuri Deksbakh. Those Games did not bring any awards to our athletes but launched a new era for Belarusian sports. The first Olympic medal was won by Belarusian athletes at the Olympic Games in 1956 in Melbourne. Hammer thrower Mikhail Krivonosov was the Silver medal winner.

Since 1994 Belarus has participated in five Olympic Games as an independent team. At the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer our athletes won 2 silver medals, in 1996 in Atlanta – 1 gold, 6 silver and 8 bronze, in 1998 at the Winter Games in Nagano – 2 bronze medals, at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney – 3 gold, 3 silver and 11 bronze medals and at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City – 1 bronze medal. Since 1994 40 Belarusian athletes became Olympic medallists and won 37 medals – 4 gold, 11 silver and 22 bronze.

In all, 59 athletes from Belarus became Olympic Champions, winning 84 gold, 47 silver and 56 bronze medals, demonstrating to the whole world that our land is rich in sport talents.

The NOC of Belarus is financed through its marketing programs: selling products with Olympic logo, building houses for the athletes and coaches, attracting financial assistance from sponsors, deriving revenue from sports venues.

Generated revenue is used to organize competitions under the IOC and NOC patronage, as well as training and participation of our athletes in major international tournaments. Besides, various sports events, competitions, sporting festivals are annually organized in Belarus. The most popular are the Olympic Day Run, Olympians Are Among Us Festival, national Spartakiads, sports events "Sport for All" and "Olympic Games not only for the Olympians". Tens of thousands of Belarusians throughout the country including the youth take part in these competitions.