Hellenic Olympic Committee

Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) ; Ελληνική Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή ( Greek ) ; Hellenic Olympic Committee ( English ) ; Comité olympique hellénique ( French )
Founded	11/24/1894
Place of foundation	Athens , Greece
president	Spyros Capralos
societies	27 national associations
Homepage	hoc.gr

The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) (Greek: Ελληνική Ολυμπιακή Επιτροπή, EOA) is the national Olympic association of Greece. He is one of the oldest associations of this type and, when he joined the International Olympic Committee in 1895, he was also one of the first members of the umbrella organization.

The task of the committee is to organize the participation of Greek athletes in the Olympic Games as well as some other multinational sporting events. It represents a total of 27 national associations of individual sports and represents them in the European Olympic Committee (EOC) .

history

The Hellenic Olympic Committee was founded in Athens on November 24, 1894. The first president was the then Greek Crown Prince Constantine . The main motivation behind the establishment of the federal government was the implementation of the first modern Olympic Games . The model for this was the first Olympic Congress , which was held in June 1984 at the Sorbonne University in Paris . 13 nations from all over the world had come together to found the International Olympic Committee and agreed that the first modern Summer Games should take place in Greece, the place of origin of the Games. Demetrius Vikelas , representative of the Greek state at this conference, became the first chairman of the IOC.

The first meeting was held on the founding day, which dealt with the early hosting of the first modern Olympic Games. These took place from March 25 to April 3, 1896 in the specially renovated Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens.

Headquarters of the HOC in Chalandri , north of Athens

As a reaction to the great success of the Games, Greece introduced a first sports law on July 10, 1899, which among other things regulated the state of physical education in schools and defined the tasks of the HOC that are still valid today. Accordingly, the organization of the Panhellenic Games and the participation in international sporting events in its area of responsibility no longer existed . In addition, the upkeep and maintenance of the Panathinaiko stadium was entrusted to him.

The law also laid down the structure of the commission. From then on, this consisted of twelve members who elected a president.

The first Panhellenic Games were organized in 1901, and in 1906 the association's stadium was the scene of the one-off Olympic Intermediate Games . The importance of this competition for the young thought of modern games is now considered to be far-reaching. The 1900 and 1904 Summer Games in Paris and Saint Louis were both part of the world exhibitions and therefore received far less attention than the events in 1896 initially suggested. The custom of all participants marching into the Olympic stadium, which is still part of the Games today, as well as the idea of the Olympic village were first introduced there.

The organization of the Mediterranean Games , which have been held since 1951, falls under the direction of the HOC.

Flag of the Mediterranean Games hosted by the HOC

Since the establishment of the International Olympic Academy in 1961 by the IOC, the operation of this information and training facility has been under the control of the Greek National Committee. The purpose of the institution, based in Athens, is to maintain and spread the Olympic spirit as well as the targeted promotion of young athletes worldwide. The facility also operates an extensive sports library and the management of the Museum of the History of the Ancient Olympic Games and the Museum of the Modern Olympic Games in Archea Olymbia .

Traditionally, the torch lighting ceremony for the Olympic torch relay is the responsibility of the HOC.

List of presidents of the HOC

President	Term of office	President	Term of office
Crown Prince Constantine	1894-1912	Princess Irene	1965-1968
Constantine I (Greece)	1913	Theodosios Papathanasiadis	1969-1973
Crown Prince Georg	1914-1917	Spyridon Vellianitis	1973-1974
Miltiadis Negrepontis	1918-1920	Apostolos Nikolaidis	1974-1976
Crown Prince Georg	1921-1922	Georgios Athanasiadis	1976-1983
George II (Greece)	1922-1923	Aggelos Lempesis	1983-1984
Georgios Averoff	1924-1930	Lambis Nikolaou	1985-1992
Ioannis Drosopoulos	1930-1936	Antonios Tzikas	1993-1996
Crown Prince Paul	1936-1948	Lambis Nikolaou	1997-2004
Paul (Greece)	1948-1952	Minos Kyriakou	2004-2009
Konstantinos Georgakopoulos Ioannis Ketseas	1953-1954	Spyros Capralos	since 2009
Crown Prince Constantine	1955-1964

Members of the IOC

member	Term of office
Demetrius Vikelas	1894-1899
Alexandros Merkatis	1899-1925
Georgios Averoff	1926-1930
Nikolaos Politis	1930-1933
Aggelos Volanakis	1933-1963
Ioannis Ketseas	1946-1965
Constantine II (Greece)	1963-1974
Pyrros Lappas	1965-1980
Epaminondas Petralias	1975-1977
Nikolaos Nisiotis	1978-1986
Nikos Filaretos	1981-2005
Lambis Nikolaou	1986-2015
Spyros Capralos	since 2019

Member associations

The Hellenic Olympic Committee bundles the international activities of a total of 27 national associations for specific sports, 26 of which are active in disciplines of the Summer Olympic Games and one association in disciplines of the Winter Games .