Colombia (COL)

Colombia first competed at the 1932 Olympic Games, represented by a lone athlete, marathon runner Jorge Perry. The country first formed a National Olympic Committee, however, only in 1936 and this NOC was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1939. Colombia has since competed at every Olympics with the exception of 1952. Colombia competed at the Olympic Winter Games for the first time in 2010 and competed again at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Colombian athletes have won 27 Olympic medals, with five of them in gold. The first ever gold medal for Colombia was won by María Isabel Urrutia in women’s heavyweight weightlifting in 2000. The most successful Colombian Olympian is Mariana Pajón, who won the women’s BMX cycling in 2012 as well as in 2016.

More recent evidence has indicated that Francis Henriquez de Zubiria, who competed in 1900 tug-of-war, was actually a Colombian national, making the nations first appearance 32 years earlier than usually considered.

In 1946 the Olympic Committee of Colombia was awarded with the Olympic Cup.