What is the COV?
The Comité Olímpico Venezolano is the National Olympic Committee of Venezuela. It describes itself as "una asociación civil sin fines de lucro" — a private non-profit civil association — recognised by the International Olympic Committee and made up of the national federations of Olympic and non-Olympic sports.[1]
Unlike most of the committees on this site, it also has an express place in national legislation. Venezuelan sports-law commentary reads article 51 of the Ley Orgánica de Deporte, Actividad Física y Educación Física as constituting the COV a non-profit body of private law and the "superior associative body" of the national federations for Olympic disciplines, with article 52 giving it the power to enter and accredit Venezuelan athletes for the Olympic Games and the "exclusive representation of Venezuelan sport before the International Olympic Committee".[4]
The effect is that a Venezuelan entry to an Olympic or continental Games runs through the COV and through an affiliated federation such as the aquatics federation or the athletics federation, and not through a club or a state sports institute directly.[3] [4]
What does it do?
Its functions are the standard NOC set, stated twice over — in the Olympic Charter and in Venezuelan statute. The Charter gives NOCs "the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games and at the regional, continental or world multisports competitions patronised by the IOC", and "the exclusive authority to select and designate the interested hosts which may apply to organise Olympic Games".[6] The Organic Law restates the entry and accreditation power and the exclusivity of representation before the IOC.[4]
In practice the visible work is delegation management. Within days of the January 2026 election the incoming board named the chefs de mission for the IV South American Youth Games in Panama and the XXV Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo, which is the mechanism by which a national team is constituted for a given Games.[2]
Where it sits alongside the state is the interesting part. The sports ministry created as a separate portfolio in 2006 and the Instituto Nacional de Deportes, a state institute dating in law to 1971, run public sport policy and public money; the COV is a private association operating in the same field.[5] The Charter's requirement is that NOCs "must preserve their autonomy and resist all pressures of any kind, including but not limited to political, legal, religious or economic pressures" — the standard against which that coexistence is measured.[6]
When was it founded and when was it recognised by the IOC?
The committee states on its own pages that "El COV fue fundado el 23 de diciembre de 1935".[1] Venezuelan sports-law commentary independently gives the same date, 23 December 1935, for its constitution as a body of private law.[4] The date is therefore carried here on more than the committee's own word.
The recognition date is weaker. Olympedia records that Venezuela formed a National Olympic Committee on 23 December 1935 and that IOC recognition followed in 1936.[7] This page could not verify 1936 against an IOC document and states it on secondary sourcing only. The committee's own account asserts that it is recognised by and affiliated to the IOC but does not date the recognition.[1]
A third date is separate again from both: Venezuela's Olympic participation. Olympedia records a single Venezuelan competitor at the 1932 Games and sustained participation only from 1948, which is after both the founding and the reported recognition.[7] Founding, recognition and debut are three different events here and are not interchangeable.
How is it funded and governed?
The COV is governed by an elected board. On 27 January 2026 an electoral assembly of 56 voters — the federative representatives plus the Athletes' Commission delegate — re-elected María Soto as president for the 2026-2030 term, the board slate taking 47 valid votes with two annulled; four vice-presidents, a secretary general (Katiuska Santaella), a treasurer (Zobeira Hernández) and three directors with two alternates were elected alongside her.[2] The committee reports that Soto also announced that the presidents of the Honour Commission and the Comptroller Council would gain votes on the executive.[2] Soto is the first woman to hold the presidency.[2]
Funding is where this page is thinnest. No annual report, audited accounts or budget statement was reachable on the committee's site, and no figure is given here. What can be said from the legal sources is structural: the Organic Law of 2011 places the National System of Sport under the responsible ministry, public money for sport moves through the ministry and the Instituto Nacional de Deportes, and the COV is constituted outside that chain as a private non-profit.[4] [5]
That is the autonomy question in concrete form, and the Olympic Charter's Rule 27 duty to resist political and economic pressure is the instrument against which it is read.[6] This page records the structure and does not characterise the relationship beyond it.
Which Games does it enter, and what does it organise?
The COV enters Venezuela at the Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games, and at the continental and regional Games of the Americas. The regional ladder is unusually dense for Venezuela: as a member NOC of Panam Sports it enters the Pan American Games and the Junior Pan American Games; through ODESUR the South American Games; through Centro Caribe Sports the Central American and Caribbean Games; and it also contests the Bolivarian Games.[2]
The committee's own record of the 2026 cycle shows the machinery: chefs de mission appointed for the South American Youth Games in Panama and for the Santo Domingo edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games, both in 2026.[2] Those Games feed Olympic qualification in several sports, so the regional entries are not separate from the Olympic pathway.
This page found no multi-sport games owned by the COV itself. Its organising role is the delegation and the domestic Olympic-movement programme rather than a Games franchise.[1]
Which federations are its members?
The committee publishes a register headed "Federaciones inscritas en el Comité Olímpico Venezolano". Counted directly from that register on 12 September 2026 it carries 54 entries, including the COV Athletes' Commission alongside the sports federations; the committee states no total of its own, so the figure here is a count rather than a quoted number.[3]
The register is broader than the Olympic programme, which is consistent with the committee's description of itself as comprising "las federaciones nacionales de diversos deportes olímpicos y no olímpicos".[1] Summer Olympic federations such as athletics, aquatic sports, baseball, basketball, boxing and judo sit beside chess, billiards, domino, bolas criollas, kickingball, sumo and sambo federations.[3]
Only the federations affiliated to international federations governing Olympic sports are required members under the Olympic Charter, which also provides that "the voting majority of an NOC and of its executive body shall consist of the votes cast by the national federations".[6] The composition of the 2026 electoral assembly — 56 voters, federative representatives plus the athletes' delegate — is consistent with that rule.[2]
References
- Comité Olímpico Venezolano — Quiénes Somos. Accessed September 2026.
- Comité Olímpico Venezolano — María Soto reelegida al frente del COV, 27 January 2026. Accessed September 2026.
- Comité Olímpico Venezolano — Federaciones inscritas en el Comité Olímpico Venezolano. Accessed September 2026.
- Asociación Española de Derecho Deportivo — Nota sobre el régimen jurídico del Comité Olímpico Venezolano. Accessed September 2026.
- Asociación Española de Derecho Deportivo — Legislación del deporte de Venezuela y régimen jurídico del fútbol venezolano. Accessed September 2026.
- International Olympic Committee — Olympic Charter, in force as from 30 January 2025, Rules 27 and 28 (PDF). Accessed September 2026.
- Olympedia — Venezuela (VEN). Accessed September 2026.