What country is TPE in the Olympics? Full list of Tokyo 2020 country codes - and origins explained
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If you’ve ever watched an Olympic event, you’ll know that all the countries competing have their names shortened to just three letters - you’ll likely be familiar with GBR (Great Britain), USA (America), TUR (Turkey) and FRA (France).
But what about identifiers like CIV, CMR and DJI? With over 200 countries taking part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, this is what you need to know about the country codes being used.
What is NOC?
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Hide AdNOC stands for National Olympic Committees, and there are 206 NOCs in total.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) states that “together with the International Sport Federations, the NOCs are a constituent of the Olympic Movement under the leadership of the IOC”.
It states that the “mission of the NOCs is to develop, promote and protect the Olympic Movement in their respective countries, in accordance with the Olympic Charter”.
NOCs are usually identified by their three letter code, something that was introduced in the 1956 Winter Olympics and 1960 Summer Olympics.
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Hide AdOriginally, the codes were based on the host nation’s language, so for example, Japan was identified as GIA because the 1956 Winter Olympics and 1960 Summer Olympics were held in Italy, and Italian for Japan is Giappone.
Alternatively, the three letter code might have also been derived from the French name for the nation - for example, AUT for Austria, taken from Autriche. This is because French was the IOC official language at the time. Now it's official languages are French and English.
By the 1972 Winter Olympics, the majority of the three letter codes were standardised to what we know now. Several codes have changed over the years though to reflect changes occurring in certain countries.
The full list of countries and codes
| Afghanistan - AFG | Albania - ALB | Algeria - ALG | American Samoa - ASA | Andorra - AND |
| Angola - ANG | Antigua and Barbuda - ANT | Argentina - ARG | Armenia - ARM | Aruba - ARU |
| Australia - AUS | Austria - AUT | Azerbaijan - AZE | Bahamas - BAH | Bahrain - BRN |
| Bangladesh - BAN | Barbados - BAR | Belarus - BLR | Belgium - BEL | Belize - BIZ |
| Bermuda - BER | Benin - BEN | Bhutan - BHU | Bolivia - BOL | Bosnia and Herzegovina - BIH |
| Botswana - BOT | Brazil - BRA | The British Virgin Islands - IVB | Brunei - BRU | Bulgaria - BUL |
| Burkina Faso - BUR | Burundi - BDI | Cambodia - CAM | Cameroon - CMR | Canada - CAN |
| Cape Verde - CPV | Cayman Islands - CAY | Central African Republic - CAF | Chad - CHA | Chile - CHI |
| China - CHN | Colombia - COL | Comoros - COM | Congo, Republic of the - CGO | Congo, Democratic Republic of the - COD |
| The Cook Islands - COK | Costa Rica - CRC | Cote d'Ivoire - CIV | Croatia - CRO | Cuba - CUB |
| Cyprus - CYP | Czech Republic - CZE | Denmark - DEN | Djibouti - DJI | Dominica - DMA |
| The Dominican Republic - DOM | East Timor (Timor-Leste) - TLS | Ecuador - ECU | Egypt - EGY | El Salvador - ESA |
| Equatorial Guinea - GEQ | Eritrea - ERI | Estonia - EST | Ethiopia - ETH | Fiji - FIJ |
| Finland - FIN | France - FRA | Gabon - GAB | The Gambia - GAM | Georgia - GEO |
| Germany - GER | Ghana - GHA | Greece - GRE | Grenada - GRN | Guam - GUM |
| Guatemala - GUA | Guinea - GUI | Guinea-Bissau - GBS | Guyana - GUY | Haiti - HAI |
| Honduras - HON | Hong Kong - HKG | Hungary - HUN | Iceland - ISL | India - IND |
| Indonesia - INA | Iran - IRI | Iraq - IRQ | Ireland - IRL | Israel - ISR |
| Italy - ITA | Jamaica - JAM | Japan - JPN | Jordan - JOR | Kazakhstan - KAZ |
| Kenya - KEN | Kiribati - KIR | Korea, North (PDR of Korea) - PRK | Korea, South - KOR | Kosovo - KOS |
| Kuwait - KUW | Kyrgyzstan - KGZ | Laos - LAO | Latvia - LAT | Lebanon - LIB |
| Lesotho - LES | Liberia - LBR | Libya - LBA | Liechtenstein - LIE | Lithuania - LTU |
| Luxembourg - LUX | Macedonia - MKD | Madagascar - MAD | Malawi - MAW | Malaysia - MAS |
| The Maldives - MDV | Mali - MLI | Malta - MLT | Marshall Islands - MHL | Mauritania - MTN |
| Mauritius - MRI | Mexico - MEX | Micronesia - FSM | Moldova - MDA | Monaco - MON |
| Mongolia - MGL | Montenegro - MNE | Morocco - MAR | Mozambique - MOZ | Myanmar (Burma) - MYA |
| Namibia - NAM | Nauru - NRU | Nepal - NEP | Netherlands - NED | New Zealand - NZL |
| Nicaragua - NCA | Niger - NIG | Nigeria - NGR | Norway - NOR | Oman - OMA |
| Pakistan - PAK | Palau - PLW | Palestine - PLE | Panama - PAN | Papua New Guinea - PNG |
| Paraguay - PAR | Peru - PER | Philippines - PHI | Poland - POL | Portugal - POR |
| Puerto Rico - PUR | Qatar - QAT | Romania - ROU | Russian Federation - RUS | Rwanda - RWA |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis - SKN | Saint Lucia - LCA | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - VIN | Samoa - SAM | San Marino - SMR |
| Sao Tome and Principe - STP | Saudi Arabia - KSA | Senegal - SEN | Serbia - SRB | Seychelles - SEY |
| Sierra Leone - SLE | Singapore - SIN | Slovakia - SVK | Slovenia - SLO | Solomon Islands - SOL |
| Somalia - SOM | South Africa - RSA | Spain - ESP | Sri Lanka - SRI | Sudan - SUD |
| Suriname - SUR | Swaziland - SWZ | Sweden - SWE | Switzerland - SUI | Syria - SYR |
| Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) - TPE | Tajikistan - TJK | Tanzania - TAN | Thailand - THA | Togo - TOG |
| Tonga - TGA | Trinidad and Tobago - TRI | Tunisia - TUN | Turkey - TUR | Turkmenistan - TKM |
| Tuvalu - TUV | Uganda - UGA | Ukraine - UKR | United Arab Emirates - UAE | United Kingdom (Great Britain) - GBR |
| United States - USA | Uruguay - URU | Uzbekistan - UZB | Vanuatu - VAN | Venezuela - VEN |
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