As Yugoslavia broke apart in the early 1990s, Bosnia and Herzegovina participated as a separate entity at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games. They have appeared at every Summer Olympics since – nine in all up to and including Paris 2024 – and are yet to win a single Olympic medal.

The nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed with the split up of Yugoslavia in 1991, as was also Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro.

Although under a different flag, Bosnian athletes have been participating in the Olympics since 1920. They participated under the Yugoslavian flag and many have won Olympic medals. Boxer Anton Josipović took the gold in the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Yugoslavian men and women's teams that included many Bosnian players won many medals as well. Žarko Varajić was part of the 1976 Yugoslavian national basketball team that took the silver in Montreal, Canada. Mirza Delibašić, Dražen Dalipagić, and Ratko Radovanović were part of the 1980 men's basketball team that took the gold in Moscow. Even the women took the bronze on the same year. In 1984, the bronze medalist basketball team of Yugoslavia still included four Bosnian players. The 1988 men and women's basketball team who each won a silver medal in Seoul, South Korea still had multiple Bosnians.

Bosnian football players were also in the Yugoslavian team who won Olympic gold (1960), silver (1956) and bronze (1984). The Yugoslavian handball sides that took gold had quite a handful of Bosnian athletes too: the men won in 1972 and again in 1984, adding bronze in 1988, while the women took silver in 1980 and gold in 1984. So there is no shortage of talents in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the Winter Games Bosnia and Herzegovina started participating as an independent state in 1994, and are yet to produce an Olympic medalist. At Milano Cortina in 2026 they were represented by five athletes in alpine and cross-country skiing.

The closest the country has come in recent years has been in the pool. Swimmer Lana Pudar won the 200m butterfly at the 2022 European Championships and took bronze in the same event at the 2024 World Championships, and reached the semi-finals at the Paris Olympics. Bosnia and Herzegovina sent five athletes to those Games across athletics, judo and swimming, with shot putter Mesud Pezer and judoka Larisa Cerić carrying the flag at the opening ceremony.

Trivia

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of only four European nations never to have won an Olympic medal. The other three – Andorra, Malta and Monaco – are all far smaller, which leaves Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of more than three million, much the largest European country still waiting.
  • Albania was for many years the other name on that list, but won its first Olympic medals at Paris in 2024, taking two bronzes in freestyle wrestling.
  • Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, at a time when Bosnia and Herzegovina was still a republic within Yugoslavia.