The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, referred to as simply "Great Britain", has been represented at every modern Olympic Games. As of the 2024 Summer Olympics, it is third in the all-time Summer Olympic medal table by overall number of medals and fourth in number of gold medals won. London hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012.

Athletes from the United Kingdom compete as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, branded "Team GB". The team is organised by the British Olympic Association, the National Olympic Committee for the UK. Team GB also represents the three Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man and the UK's Overseas Territories (with the exceptions of Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands). Athletes from Northern Ireland can choose to compete for either Great Britain or Ireland, with most choosing Ireland. The use of "Great Britain" over "United Kingdom" has faced criticism in Northern Ireland.

British athletes have won a combined total of 1,025 medals at the Olympic Games; 979 of those medals were won at the Summer Olympics, where Team GB is the only team to have won at least one gold medal at every games. Team GB is also the only team to have won at least one athletics medal at every Summer Olympic Games. The team has been less successful at the Winter Olympics, winning 39 medals, 15 of them gold. The UK finished in first place on the medals table at the 1908 games, placed second at the 2016 games and third at the 1900, 1912, 1920 and 2012 games.

The most successful British Olympian by gold medals and total medals won is Sir Jason Kenny, who has won seven gold medals and nine overall, all in track cycling. The cyclist Dame Laura Kenny and the dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin share the record for the most medals won by a female British athlete, with six each; Kenny's five gold medals are the female British record. The most successful Winter Olympians from Team GB are skeleton racers Lizzy Yarnold and Matt Weston, with two gold medals each.

Timeline of participation Olympic Years Teams 1896–1920 Great Britain 1924–present

Eligibility

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, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, who notably compete separately in many international sports outside Olympic competition for historic reasons), plus the three Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey), and all but three of the British Overseas TerritoriesAlthough the BOA represents all but three of the Overseas Territories, a number of them - British Indian Ocean Territory, the Sovereign Bases on the island of Cyprus, the South Georgia and South Sandwich islands and the British Antarctic Territory effectively have no native inhabitants. Athletes from Anguilla, Turks and Caicos and Gibraltar have represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland.(Bermuda, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands have their own NOCs).

Representatives of the devolved Northern Ireland government and others in the region have objected to the name "Team GB" as discriminatory and called for it to be renamed as "Team UK" to make it clearer that Northern Ireland is included on the team.

Under the IOC charter, the Olympic Federation of Ireland is also responsible for the entire island of Ireland. However, athletes from Northern Ireland can elect to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympics, as people of Northern Ireland. A number of Northern Irish-born athletes, particularly in boxing, have won medals for Ireland at the Games, while a small number of athletes from Northern Ireland have represented both Team GB and Team Ireland, most recently swimming gold medallist Jack McMillan.

Usually most of Northern Ireland's athletes at the Olympics compete for Team Ireland. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, 6 athletes () from Northern Ireland, represented Great Britain, while 31 athletes () represented Ireland. In 2016, eight represented Great Britain and 21 represented Ireland.

All athletes from the whole of Ireland were included in the Great Britain team up until the 1920 Olympics as the entire island was part of the United Kingdom at that time. Hence the Team GB claim to have won at least one gold at every Summer Games is partially founded on a single Irish athlete, Tom Kiely, who won gold in the 1904 St. Louis games. While Kiely himself objected to the designation, considering himself simply Irish, Olympic historians recognise his medal as won by Great Britain and Ireland, thus maintaining the unique British record.

The existence of a Great Britain team has been criticised by Welsh and Scottish nationalists, advocating for separate Welsh and Scottish Olympic teams instead.

Other nations that formed part of the then British Empire, however, were represented separately even before full independence in a variety of ways, either as fledgling nations such as South Africa and India, or occasionally in regional teams such as Australasia and British West Indies.

Hosted games The United Kingdom 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 team 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 in the management and funding of British sports and facilities.

London also won the right to host the 1944 Summer Olympics. However, the 1944 games were cancelled due to the Second World War.

Successful bids Games Host city Dates Nations Participants Events 1908 Summer Olympics London 27 April – 31 October 22 2,008 1101944 Summer Olympics London Cancelled1948 Summer Olympics London 29 July – 14 August 59 4,104 1362012 Summer Olympics London 27 July – 12 August 204 10,820 302

Unsuccessful bids Games City Winner of bid 1992 Summer Olympics Birmingham Barcelona, Spain 1996 Summer Olympics Manchester Atlanta, United States 2000 Summer Olympics Manchester Sydney, Australia

Potential future bids In February 2019, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced plans to bid for the 2032 or 2036 Olympics, which was backed by UK Sport. However, it has been speculated that either Manchester or Birmingham may be in the frame to host future games, rather than London. In July 2021, the 2032 Games were awarded to Brisbane.

In July 2024, Khan revealed he was to attend the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and would use the opportunity to lobby members of the British Olympic Association and the Prime Minister (a potential bid would need to be both underwritten by the government and backed by the BOA) into hosting the 2040 Olympics. He claimed London could host the "greenest games ever" by reusing venues from the 2012 games including the London Stadium, the London Aquatics Centre, Lee Valley Velopark and Copper Box Arena. The idea was backed by Tom Daley, Team GB diver, commenting that "London is one of the few cities on the planet where you would be able to host the games tomorrow".

A 2025 proposal by the Heseltine Institute would see Manchester and Liverpool launch a joint bid for the 2040 Games - this idea was backed by the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who described the prospect of the two cities hosting the games as an opportunity to 'rebalance the country'.

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Source:

Notes Australian Frederick Lane competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics, winning two gold medals in the swimming events. As a representative of a British club, his participation and medals were attributed accordingly. Conversely, British Lloyd Hildebrand won a silver medal in the 25 km cycling event. As a representative of a French club, his participation and medal were attributed to France. At the 1900 Summer Olympics four team event medals (3 gold and 1 silver) won by British clubs competing as mixed teams—composed primarily of British athletes alongside a few non-British participants—were attributed to Great Britain: gold in the 5000 metres team race, polo, and water polo and silver in polo. Art competitions (1912–1948) are not included in the medal table above, as they were non-sports events formerly part of the Olympic Games. won a total of nine art competition medals (3 gold, 5 silver and 1 bronze), across the 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932 and 1948 Summer Olympics.

Medals by Winter Games

Source:

Medals by summer sport

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

This table includes seven medals – one gold, two silver and four bronze – awarded in the 1908 and 1920 figure skating events.

Best results in non-medalling sports and disciplines Summer Sport Rank Athlete Event & Year – – – – – – 9th Great Britain men's team Men's tournament in 2012 – – – 9th Audrey Cooper &Amanda Glover Women's tournament in 1996 – – – – – – Equestrian driving – – – Equestrian vaulting – – – Field handball – – – 4th Launceston Elliot Men's Greco-Roman in 1896 Indoor handball 12th Great Britain men's team Men's tournament in 2012 Great Britain women's team Women's tournament in 2012 Indoor volleyball 9th Great Britain women's team Women's tournament in 2012 – – – 12th Georgina CassarJade FaulknerFrancesca FoxLynne HutchisonLouisa PouliRachel Smith Women's rhythmic group all-around in 2012 – – – – – – – – – 5th Liam PitchfordPaul DrinkhallSam Walker Men's team in 2016 Winter Sport Rank Athlete Event & Year 4th Gina Hathorn Women's slalom in 1968 11th Keith Oliver Individual in 1972 5th Andrew Musgrave &James Clugnet Men's team sprint in 2026 14th Derek Prentice &Christopher Dyason Doubles in 1980 Military patrol – – – 45th Percy Legard Nordic combined in 1936 55th Eddie Edwards Large hill individual in 1988Glynn Pedersen Normal hill individual in 2002 Ski mountaineering - sprint – – – 5th Terry Monaghan Men's 10,000 metres in 1960

List of Winter Olympic medallists This list also contains the medals won in winter sports at the 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympics, which are not counted in the overall winter Olympic total.