[danielf]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

(which does beg the question where does NI come into Olympic rules as it's Great Britain and not United Kingdom but that is a whole other thread??)

Actually, my wife and I were discussing that the other day and looked it up: Great Britain is the name under which the UK enters the Olympics. It's sort of an historical accident. Changing the name to UK now would mean that the UK couldn't claim the GB medals, even though it's always been the UK that competed in the Olympics. It's just called GB...

Wiki

Great Britain is the name under which the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland competes at the Olympic Games.[1][2] Great Britain was one of 14 teams to compete in the first Games, the 1896 Summer Olympics, and has competed at every Games. Athletes representing Great Britain have won 715 medals at the Summer Olympic Games, and another 22 at the Winter Olympic Games. Great Britain is the only team to have won at least one gold medal at every Summer Games.
Great Britain was the name assigned to the United Kingdom team by the International Olympic Committee[citation needed] for the 1908 Summer Olympics along with the IOC country code GBR. The team is also referred to as Team GB.[2] Representatives of the devolved Northern Ireland government, however, have objected to the name, which they argue creates a perception that Northern Ireland is not part of the British Olympic team, and have called for the team to be renamed as Team UK.[3][4]
Under the terms of a long-standing settlement between the British Olympic Association and the Olympic Council of Ireland,[citation needed] athletes from Northern Ireland can elect to represent Ireland at the Olympics, as Northern Irish people are legally entitled to dual citizenship.[5]