Nauru at the Olympics
The Republic of Nauru, also formerly known as "Pleasant Island", established the Nauru Olympic Committee in 1991 and officially accepted to the international community in 1994. With their considerably small size, Nauru is considered as the smallest member nation, according to population, in the International Olympic Committee.
Nauru participated officially for the first time at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, USA, sending three athletes to represent them in weightlifting. Quincy Detenamo (76kg), Gerard Garabwan (91kg), and Marcus Stephen (59kg) were Nauru's first-ever Olympians. Most of the Nauruan Olympians are weightlifters. One of these, Marcus Stephen, competed for Samoa four years earlier at the 1992 games. As Nauru had no Olympic Committee at the time, he was able to successfully apply for Samoan citizenship and was allowed to compete for Samoa.
Nauruan weightlifters are doing well in the Summer Games but unfortunately, they are yet to win the country's first Olympic medal. The closest they got was an 8th place finish by Yukio Peter in the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece.
Related Pages
- List of all countries that have participated at the Olympic Games.
- About sport in Nauru
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