Belarus (BLR)

The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus (formerly Belorussia, or Byelorussia [White Russia]) was formed in 1991 after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Many Belarus athletes competed from 1952 to 1988 for the Soviet Union, and Belarus athletes were present at both Albertville and Barcelona in 1992 as members of the Unified Team. During this time the most successful Belarusians have been the gymnasts Nelli Kim (five gold and one silver in 1976 and 1980) and Olga Korbut (four gold and two silver in 1972 and 1976) as well as the fencer Yelena Novikova-Belova, who won four gold, one silver, and one bronze between 1968 and 1980. Representing the Unified Team in 1992 Belarusian Vitaly Shcherbo won six gold medals in gymnastics. Four years later he won four bronze medals for Belarus to a personal total of ten medals.

The National Olympic Committee of Belarus was formed on 22 March 1991 and provisionally and conditionally recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 9 March 1992. Full recognition followed at the IOC session in Monte Carlo on 24 September 1993. Belarus competed as an independent nation for the first time at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, with 33 athletes who won two medals. They first competed independently at the Summer Olympic Games in 1996, and through 2016, they have won 20 gold medals and 96 medals, with 8 gold and 18 in total at the Olympic WInter Games. The most successful Olympian from Belarus comes from winter sport and is female biathlete Darya Domracheva, who after a bronze medal in 2010, won three gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. She is followed by female rower Yekaterina Khodatovich-Karsten, with four medals (two golds, one silver, and one bronze), and male canoeists Roman Petrushenko and Vadim Makhnyov, who both won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Belarus has never hosted an Olympic Games, but in 1980, several preliminary football (soccer) matches were held in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.