Soviet Union (URS)

Although Russia competed from 1900 through 1912 at the Olympics, it did not return after World War I. After the Bolshevik Revolution the Soviet Union (formally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR) did not attend the Olympics for 40 years. In fact, the Soviet Union was absent from international sports, instead choosing to compete in separate socialist events, which also attracted participation from other nations. The Soviet Union was disbanded in late 1991 after the August Revolution. It no longer competes as a single nation at the Olympics as its 15 former republics now compete as independent nations, but the central core of the former nation still competes at the Olympic as Russia.

After World War II the Soviet Union competed in the European Championships in track & field athletics in 1946 and the National Olympic Committee was formed on 23 April 1951 and recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 7 May of the same year at the IOC session in Vienna, so the Soviet Union participated for the first time at the Olympic Games in 1952 at Helsinki. It made its inaugural Olympic Winter Games appearance in 1956 at Cortina d’Ampezzo. It competed at every Olympics from 1956-1988 with the exception of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and in 1992 most of its constituent republics competed as the Unified Team (EUN). After returning to the Olympics the Soviet Union was a dominant force in almost all Olympic sports. It was the second nation to win more than 1,000 Olympic medals (after the United States), winning a grand total of 1,204 medals (including 473 gold). All of its top medal winners competed in gymnastics, with Larysa Latynina winning 18 Olympic medals, which is the most of any female athlete in Olympic history. The Soviet Union hosted the Games of the XXIInd Olympiad in Moscow in 1980.

In 1955 the Olympic Committee of the USSR was awarded with the Count Alberto Bonacossa Trophy.