Olympic history of Iceland
The Olympic history of Iceland began with the Summer Olympics in 1908 , when an athlete from Iceland, the wrestler Jóhannes Jósefsson , competed in the Olympic Games for the first time. At that time Iceland was not yet independent from Denmark and had neither its own sports association nor a National Olympic Committee (NOK).
On January 28, 1912, the Icelandic Sports Federation ( Íþróttasamband Íslands ) was founded. The Icelandic NOK was founded on September 29, 1921 and admitted to the International Olympic Committee on January 11, 1935 . In 1997 the association and the NOK were merged to form the Icelandic Sports and Olympic Association (isl. Íþrótta- og Ólympíusamband Íslands , ÍSÍ ).
So far Iceland has won four medals at the Olympic Games. The Icelandic men's national handball team last won a silver medal in Beijing in 2008 . This made Iceland the smallest country that has ever won a medal in a team sport.
Participation in summer games
1908 , 1912 , 1936 , 1948 , 1952 , 1956 , 1960 , 1964 , 1968 , 1972 , 1976 , 1980 , 1984 , 1988 , 1992 , 1996 , 2000 , 2004 , 2008 , 2012
Participation in winter games
1948 , 1952 , 1956 , 1960 , 1964 , 1968 , 1976 , 1980 , 1984 , 1988 , 1992 , 1994 , 1998 , 2002 , 2006 , 2010
Individual evidence
- ^ Iceland at the 1908 London Summer Games on Sports-reference.com
- ^ History National Olympic and Sports Association of Iceland on olympic.is, ÍSÍ
- ↑ Sean Gregory: The Most Important Team at the Olympics? Why, It's Icelandic Handball. In: Time - Olympics. July 30, 2012, accessed November 20, 2013 .
Web links
- Íþrótta- og Ólympíusamband Íslands (Icelandic Olympic Committee) website
- National Olympic and Sports Association of Iceland
- Iceland in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
- Iceland on Olympic.org - The Official website of the Olympic movement (English)