What are the Five Committees of the Olympics?

The highly anticipated worldwide multi-sport event, the Summer Olympics 2024 is scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11, 2024. After a century since its previous hosting in 1924, Paris, France, will take center stage. Further, the global event will be held in 16 other cities in the Paris region and one in Tahiti, a French overseas territory.

Since the main intention of the Olympics, as symbolized by its five rings, is unity and equality, any nation disrupting it is not invited. There have been several precedents over the years in Russia, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, Austria, and Bulgaria, through their National Olympic Committees (NOC).

Initially, at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Russia and Belarus were banned from participating due to the Ukraine war, but later the athletes of the respective countries were allowed to participate as neutrals. However, this was criticized by the nine-time Olympian gold medalist Larisa Latynina as "unpatriotic," being a Russian.

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The Five Olympic Associations

The five continental Olympic associations under whom participating 206 NOCs fall are Africa (ANOCA), America (PASO), Asia (OCA), Europe (EOC), and Oceania (ONOC).

A nation does not compete in the Olympics; rather, its National Olympic Committee (NOC) does. The 1894-established International Olympic Committee (IOC) organizes the Games with support from the 1979-established Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), which includes the five continental Olympic associations as separate bodies and a total of 206 NOCs.

Now each association has its own championships; they unite during the Olympics; otherwise, their championships for their members are:

• ANOCA (African Games for its 54 members)

• PASO (Pan American Games and Pan American Winter Games for its 41 members)

• OCA (Asian Games and Asian Winter Games for its 45 members)

• EOC (European Games for its 50 members)

• ONOC (Pacific Games for its 17 members).

Further, the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM), with 26 NOCs, and the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees (UANOC), with 22 NOCs, arrange multi-sport competitions involving Arabic-speaking nations and Mediterranean nations, although they are not continental unions. Given that any of the member countries are members of either of the continental associations, they can send their athletes to the games.

What is the Olympic Committee called?

The primary body for the Olympic Games as a whole is the International National Committee (IOC), which was established in 1894 by Demetrios Vikelas and Pierre de Coubertin.

Its primary goal is to support and spread "Olympism," which is a philosophy combining worldwide cooperation, culture, and athletics with the aim of promoting human development and upholding human dignity through sport. The IOC is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its president is Thomas Bach as of June 2024.

For the 2024 Paris Olympics, the temporary body is the Paris Organising Committee for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (COJOP2024), with Tony Estanguet as the president. It was created by the NOC of the host nation, France, as an Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (OCOG), which speaks with the IOC directly and gets directives from it.

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