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Participating Countries

The first official Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix France, attended by 16 nations. The 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang had 93 nations competing, plus athletes from Russia who participated under the IOC flag (see number of countries and athletes).



Twelve countries have sent athletes to every Winter Olympic Games: Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Only one of these, the United States, has earned gold at each Games.

Here are links to more information about each of the following countries' participation at the Winter Olympic Games. This is not a comprehensive list of the countries that have participated.

In 2018, Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore made their Winter Olympics debut. In 2022, two countries made their debut, Saudi Arabia and Haiti.

There have also been athletes without a country - competing as Independent Athletes

Previous Participating Nations



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Olympics Extra

The next Olympics will be in Paris 2024, followed by the Winter edition in Milan-Cortina 2026. Check out the list of Olympic Games sports, as well as discontinued and demonstration sports.

Major Events Extra

The largest sporting event in the world is the Olympic Games, but there are many other multi-sport games. In terms of single sport events, nothing beats the FIFA World Cup. To see what's coming up, check out the calendar of major sporting events.

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