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National Olympic Committee · Chile

COCh — Comité Olímpico de Chile

Chile's National Olympic Committee, a private-law association of national federations founded in 1934 and named in the Ley del Deporte; it entered Team Chile at Santiago 2023 and leads the country's bid for the 2036 Olympic Games.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
Founded20 June 1934, per the committee's own account
IOC recognition1934 per Olympedia; a separate account dates the assumption of NOC functions to 15 December 1941 — see section 3
HeadquartersCentro de Entrenamiento Olímpico, Avenida Ramón Cruz 1176, Ñuñoa, Santiago
PresidentMiguel Ángel Mujica Brain, in office since 2017, re-elected 26 September 2024 for 2024-2028
Secretary generalJaime Agliati Valenzuela, re-elected 26 September 2024
Members52 national federations plus an athletes' commission, per the committee's own site
Statutory basisLey 19.712 del Deporte, art. 32, which names the COCh as a category of sports organisation
Current bidChile's 2036 Olympic Games candidature, opened by government letter of intent after the announcement of 1 June 2024

What is the Comité Olímpico de Chile?

The Comité Olímpico de Chile, known as the COCh and publicly as Team Chile, is Chile's National Olympic Committee. It is a private-law association whose members are the country's national sports federations, and it is the body through which Chilean athletes are entered in the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games and the other multi-sport events of the Olympic calendar.[1] [6]

The committee states its object as developing and perfecting the Olympic movement and sport in Chile, and describes itself as holding the exclusive right to represent the country at the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games, the South American Games, the Bolivarian Games and events of the association of National Olympic Committees, in all editions and categories.[1] That claim of exclusivity is the committee's own wording; the underlying entitlement is the Olympic Charter's, not Chilean law's.[12]

Chilean law recognises the committee without creating it. Article 32 of Ley 19.712, the Ley del Deporte, lists the Comité Olímpico de Chile among the types of sports organisation in the national system, describing it as "formado por federaciones deportivas nacionales y otras entidades que determinen sus estatutos".[6]

What does it do?

Its central function is entry and selection. Rule 27 of the Olympic Charter gives NOCs "the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games" and "the exclusive authority to select and designate the interested hosts which may apply to organise Olympic Games in their respective countries"; Rule 27 also requires an NOC to "preserve their autonomy and resist all pressures of any kind, including but not limited to political, legal, religious or economic pressures".[12] Those are the powers the COCh exercises when it names Team Chile for an Olympic or continental delegation.[11]

The committee also appears in the domestic constitution chain. Article 38 of Ley 19.712 allows South American, continental, international or world sporting confederations recognised by the Comité Olímpico de Chile, to which a Chilean national federation is affiliated, to constitute themselves in Chile under the procedure of article 37.[8]

It can also be handed a supervisory role by the state. On 18 August 2026 the Instituto Nacional de Deportes designated the COCh as external administrator of the Federación de Tenis de Chile by resolution of its acting national director, after governance problems were raised in Chilean tennis; the committee named a three-member working commission to run the federation.[10] That is an intervention in a member federation ordered by a state agency and executed by the NOC, and it is reported here as of the date of the resolution.

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

The committee states that it was founded on 20 June 1934.[1] Olympedia records that Chile's National Olympic Committee was formed in 1934 and recognised by the IOC in the same year.[5] On that account founding and recognition fall together.

A second account separates three dates. It holds that the body founded on 20 June 1934 was the Consejo Nacional de Deportes, that it formally assumed the functions of Chile's National Olympic Committee on 15 December 1941, and that it obtained legal personality on 21 January 1942.[9] This page could not reconcile the two and could not retrieve an IOC instrument stating a recognition date, so the 1934 recognition is carried on secondary sourcing only and the 1941 transition is flagged as a competing account rather than adopted.

Chile's Olympic participation predates the committee in either version: Olympedia records a first Chilean appearance in 1912, with the 1932 and 1980 Summer Games missed.[5] The headquarters is the Centro de Entrenamiento Olímpico on Avenida Ramón Cruz in Ñuñoa, Santiago.[3] [1]

How is it funded and governed?

The COCh is governed by an assembly of its member federations, which elects the president. Miguel Ángel Mujica was re-elected on 26 September 2024 with 41 votes, for a term running to 2028; he has held the office since 2017, and the committee records this as his third election.[4] [3] Jaime Agliati has been secretary general since 2012 and was re-elected on the same day.[3]

Funding is mixed and the committee says so itself. Its transparency page states that the COCh receives public financing from the Chilean state alongside resources from international private organisations including the IOC and Panam Sports, and publishes audited financial statements for the COCh and for ADO Chile separately, covering 2016 to 2025.[2] Each body submits its accounts to an external audit and to its own accounts review commission.[2]

This page could not retrieve a figure for the annual state transfer to the committee, and does not state one. The public side of the system runs through the Ministerio del Deporte and the Instituto Nacional de Deportes, the agency whose resolution placed the tennis federation under COCh administration in August 2026 — an illustration that the IND holds funding and supervisory powers over federations that the NOC does not.[10] [2]

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

The committee enters Team Chile in the Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games, the Pan American Games and Junior Pan American Games, the South American Games, the Bolivarian Games and the Youth Olympic Games.[1] At the 2026 South American Games in Santa Fe, Rosario and Rafaela, being held from 12 to 26 September 2026 and organised by ODESUR, Chile entered more than 500 athletes across 40 sports.[11]

Chile hosted the Pan American Games and Parapan American Games at Santiago 2023. The organising body was a non-profit, Corporación Santiago 2023; this page could not retrieve its constituting instrument and does not state which bodies founded it or what share of it the committee held. What is clear is that the Games were staged by that corporation rather than by the COCh as host in its own right.

On hosting and bidding, President Gabriel Boric announced on 1 June 2024 that Chile would seek the 2036 Olympic Games, and the Ministerio del Deporte states that a letter of intent was sent to the Comité Olímpico de Chile, which is to lead the candidature — consistent with the Charter rule vesting host designation in the NOC.[7] [12] This page found no IOC decision on that candidature and states none.

Which federations are its members?

The committee states that it is made up of 52 national sports federations together with an athletes' commission, and that it works through specialist areas including major events, medical services and integral athlete support.[1] A secondary account gives a higher figure of 56 affiliated federations, of which 37 govern Olympic or Paralympic sports; this page could not reconcile the two counts and reports the committee's own number as the primary one.[9] [1]

Rule 28 of the Olympic Charter requires an NOC to include all national federations affiliated to the international federations governing sports on the Olympic programme, and provides that "the voting majority of an NOC and of its executive body shall consist of the votes cast by the national federations".[12] Ley 19.712 reaches the same structure from the other direction, defining the COCh as formed by national federations and other entities its statutes determine.[6]

Chile's national federations are not separately covered on this site and are named here in plain text only: the Federación Atlética de Chile in athletics, the Federación Chilena de Natación in swimming, and the Federación de Tenis de Chile in tennis, the last of which was placed under COCh administration in August 2026.[10] Association football's professional competition, Liga de Primera, sits outside the Olympic entry chain entirely.

References

  1. Comité Olímpico de Chile — Quiénes Somos. Accessed September 2026.
  2. Comité Olímpico de Chile — Transparencia (financial statements 2016-2025, COCh and ADO Chile). Accessed September 2026.
  3. ANOC — NOC Directory: Comité Olímpico de Chile. Accessed September 2026.
  4. Comité Olímpico de Chile — Miguel Ángel Mujica es reelegido como presidente del COCH hasta 2028 (26 September 2024). Accessed September 2026.
  5. Olympedia — Chile (CHI). Accessed September 2026.
  6. Ley 19.712 del Deporte (Chile), artículo 32. Accessed September 2026.
  7. Ministerio del Deporte (Chile) — Chile iniciará proceso de postulación para ser sede de los Juegos Olímpicos 2036. Accessed September 2026.
  8. Ley 19.712 del Deporte (Chile), artículo 38. Accessed September 2026.
  9. Wikipedia (es) — Comité Olímpico de Chile (secondary; used only alongside other sources). Accessed September 2026.
  10. BioBioChile — Escándalo en tenis chileno: IND designa a COCh como administrador externo de Federación, 18 August 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  11. El Litoral — Team Chile llega a Santa Fe 2026 con más de 500 deportistas. Accessed September 2026.
  12. International Olympic Committee — Olympic Charter, Rules 27 and 28 (in force as from 30 January 2025, PDF). Accessed September 2026.