Costa Rica (CRC)

Costa Rica’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) was formed on 30 July 1953 and given official recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the IOC session in Athens, on 15 May 1954. Costa Rica has competed at 16 Summer Olympics: 1936, and continuously since 1964.

Costa Rican athletes have won four medals, all by the swimming sisters Silvia and Claudia Poll. Sylvia Poll won the first medal, with silver in the women’s 200 metres freestyle in 1988. Her younger sister, Claudia, won the only gold medal for Costa Rica in the same event, the women’s 200 metres freestyle, eight years later, in 1996. At Sydney 2000, she would bring home two bronze medals, in the 200 metres freestyle and 400 metres freestyle.

Costa Rica has competed at six Olympic Winter Games – 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2002, and 2006. They have been represented by seven men, but no women have yet appeared for Costa Rica at the Olympic Winter Games. The nation has participated in Alpine skiing (6 athletes), biathlon (1), and cross-country skiing (1). One participant, Arturo Kinch, competed five times, unusually in Alpine skiing in 1980, 1984, and 1988, and in cross-country skiing in 1984, 1988, 2002, and 2006.