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National Olympic Committee · Colombia

COC — Comité Olímpico Colombiano

The National Olympic Committee of Colombia, founded in Bogotá on 3 July 1936 on the committee's own account and recorded by Olympedia as IOC-recognised in 1939; it enters Colombia's Olympic teams and coordinates associated sport under Ley 181 de 1995.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
Founded3 July 1936, Bogotá — the committee's own account names Alberto Nariño Cheyne as its founder
IOC recognition1939, on secondary sourcing (Olympedia); the committee's own history page does not give a recognition date
HeadquartersAv. Cra 68 No 55-65, Bogotá
PresidentCiro Solano Hurtado, first elected 10 March 2021, re-elected 10 March 2025 for a term to 2029
Statutory basisLey 181 de 1995, arts. 50, 51, 62 and 72-74; Decreto 1228 de 1995
Member federationsThis page could not establish a member-federation count; the committee's affiliates page did not return a stable list.
State counterpartMinisterio del Deporte (Coldeportes until 2019)
Games enteredOlympic, Pan American, South American, Bolivarian and Central American and Caribbean Games

What is the Comité Olímpico Colombiano?

The Comité Olímpico Colombiano (COC) is Colombia's National Olympic Committee: the private association recognised by the IOC as the only body that may enter a Colombian team at the Olympic Games, and the body that Colombian statute puts at the head of the country's associated-sport sector.[1] [4]

The COC's position does not rest on the Olympic Charter alone. Ley 181 de 1995 — the framework statute of Colombian sport — names the committee at the national level of the Sistema Nacional del Deporte and assigns it functions described in the law itself as "de interés público y social".[4] [11]

For a petition or a selection record, the practical consequence is that a Colombian athlete named to an Olympic, Pan American or Bolivarian delegation is named through the COC and through a federation affiliated to it, and that the chain from federation to committee is set out in a published national law rather than only in private statutes.[4] [6]

What does the Comité Olímpico Colombiano do?

Ley 181 de 1995 gives the committee a statutory list of functions. Article 72 provides that "El Deporte Asociado estará coordinado por el Comité Olímpico Colombiano"; article 73 sets its objects in competitive and high-performance sport; and article 74 assigns it, among other duties, the coordination of the national sporting calendar with the federations, the organisation of delegations, and the maintenance of athlete registries.[4]

Decreto 1228 de 1995 supplies the recognition machinery that matters most for national team selection. Its article 12 makes the aval — the endorsement — of the Comité Olímpico Colombiano a requirement for a national federation's recognition; article 26 provides that only the committee and the national federations may bid to host international competitions in Colombia, subject to a prior favourable opinion of the national sports authority; and article 42 reserves the flag and emblem of Olympic committees to their exclusive ownership.[6]

The committee's president also sits, or may send a delegate, on the governing board of the national sports authority under article 62 of Ley 181, which is the formal point of contact between the private committee and the state.[4] [11]

When was it founded and when was it recognised by the IOC?

These are two dates and they are not the same. The committee states that it was formally founded on 3 July 1936 under the leadership of Alberto Nariño Cheyne, and it marked its 89th anniversary on 3 July 2025 — a count consistent with that founding date.[1] [3]

IOC recognition is separate and the committee's own history page does not state it. Olympedia records that Colombia first formed a National Olympic Committee in 1936 and that the IOC recognised it in 1939.[2] This page could not retrieve an IOC document confirming 1939, and states the recognition year on that secondary source only. Colombian athletes had appeared at earlier Games, which is why founding and recognition are frequently collapsed in secondary accounts.

No rename is recorded: the body has carried the name Comité Olímpico Colombiano throughout. Its seat is in Bogotá, at Av. Cra 68 No 55-65, and a new committee building in the city was inaugurated in March 2025, the day before its elective assembly.[3] [5]

How is it funded and governed?

The committee is governed by an assembly of delegates of the affiliated federations, which elects the president for four-year terms. Ciro Solano Hurtado was elected on 10 March 2021 and re-elected on 10 March 2025 with 53 of 56 votes, for a mandate running to 2029.[1] [5]

Funding runs on three channels. The first is the state: the Ministerio del Deporte, created in 2019 out of Coldeportes, holds the national sport budget, and the committee has taken a public position on it — at a public hearing on the 2025 sport budget held in the Chamber of Representatives on 13 December 2024, its president said that without resources for high-performance sport there was no way forward, and criticised the absence of incentives for private investment.[8] [11]

The second is Olympic Solidarity, whose scholarships and courses — coaching, sports administration, the MOSO management programme, IOC diplomas — the committee administers through its academic directorate.[9] The third is sponsorship. This page could not retrieve an audited annual report for the committee and gives no revenue figure.

Which Games does it enter, and what does it organise?

The committee enters Colombia at the Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games, at the Youth Olympic Games, and across the continental and regional ladder: the Pan American Games and Junior Pan American Games under Panam Sports, the South American Games under ODESUR, the Central American and Caribbean Games under Centro Caribe Sports, and the Bolivarian Games.[10]

One sourced illustration rather than a list: the committee's president attended the opening of the XX Bolivarian Games at Ayacucho and Lima on 22 November 2025, where Colombia was one of 17 delegations and its flagbearers were named by the committee.[10]

Under article 26 of Decreto 1228 de 1995 the committee is also one of only two kinds of body — the other being a national federation — entitled to bid to bring an international competition to Colombia, which places it inside any Colombian hosting and bidding question. The committee is in that respect both the entrant of teams abroad and one of the two gatekeepers for international competition held at home, and the two roles rest on different articles of the same 1995 decree.[6] [4]

Which federations are its members?

This page could not establish a member-federation count; the committee's affiliates page did not return a stable list. The federations it names span the Olympic programme — athletics, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball, basketball, football, cycling, the combat sports — and a substantial non-Olympic tail including chess, billiards, bowling, coleo and disc sports.[7]

Among the members whose pages this site already carries are the athletics federation Fecodatle, the boxing federation Fecolbox, the tennis federation Fedecoltenis and the triathlon federation Fedecoltri.[7]

Membership is not merely associative. Because article 12 of Decreto 1228 de 1995 conditions a national federation's recognition on the committee's aval, affiliation and state recognition are linked: a Colombian federation outside the committee is outside the statutory structure that lets it enter athletes internationally. The delegates of these federations in turn form the assembly that elects the committee's own leadership, which is why the affiliation list and the electorate are the same population: 56 votes were available at the March 2025 assembly.[6] [1] [5]

References

  1. Comité Olímpico Colombiano — Historia del COC. Accessed September 2026.
  2. Olympedia — Colombia (COL), NOC formation and IOC recognition. Accessed September 2026.
  3. Comité Olímpico Colombiano — El Comité Olímpico Colombiano celebra 89 años de historia, 3 July 2025. Accessed September 2026.
  4. Ley 181 de 1995 (Colombia) — arts. 50, 51, 62, 72, 73, 74. Accessed September 2026.
  5. Infobae — Ciro Solano fue reelegido como presidente del Comité Olímpico Colombiano, 11 March 2025. Accessed September 2026.
  6. Decreto 1228 de 1995 (Colombia) — arts. 11, 12, 26, 42. Accessed September 2026.
  7. Comité Olímpico Colombiano — Federaciones afiliadas. Accessed September 2026.
  8. Comité Olímpico Colombiano — audiencia pública del presupuesto del deporte 2025, 13 December 2024. Accessed September 2026.
  9. Comité Olímpico Colombiano — Solidaridad Olímpica programmes and scholarships. Accessed September 2026.
  10. Comité Olímpico Colombiano — Inaugurados los XX Juegos Bolivarianos Ayacucho-Lima 2025, 22 November 2025. Accessed September 2026.
  11. Ministerio del Deporte (Colombia) — Sistema Nacional del Deporte. Accessed September 2026.