Bhutan Olympic Committee

Bhutan Olympic Committee

Bhutan Olympic Committee logo
Country/Region	Bhutan
Code	BHU
Created	1983
Recognized	1983
Continental Association	OCA
Headquarters	Thimphu
President	HRH Prince Dasho Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck
Secretary General	Sonam Karma Tshering
Website	www.bhutanolympiccommittee.org

The Bhutan Olympic Committee was created in November 1983 with the King of Bhutan as its President, with its headquarters at Thimphu, Bhutan. Following this recognition, Bhutan participated for the first time in the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles when three men and three women archers represented Bhutan.

The Bhutan Olympic Committee is one of only 205 National Olympic Committees created by the Olympic Organization. National Olympic Committee (NOC) is created in each country of the world. NOC is one of the three constituents of the Olympic Movement together with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Sport Federations. The objective of the NOC is to “develop, promote and protect the Olympic Movement in the country...”

Apart from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Bhutan is also a member of Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), Paris and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), Kuwait. Affiliated sports federations of Bhutan are the Bhutan Amateur Athletic Federation, Bhutan Boxing Federation, Bhutan Football Federation, Bhutan Table Tennis Federation and Bhutan Tennis Federation, all located in Thimphu.

In July 2003, the Department for Youth, Culture & Sports was established under the aegis of the Ministry of Education, Government of Bhutan, with the objective to develop “a holistic approach and policy for sports and social development. Bhutan”. Bhutan now has 14 sports federations in which 100,000 (amateur) sports practitioners are members.

Bhutan and the Netherlands have been involved in an active cooperation programme since 2001. Under this programme, archery, a national sport in Bhutan, is receiving a countrywide boost. The intention is towards the Olympic Games of 2012 to achieve status of Bhutan as one of the leading countries in Olympic archery. The bilateral cooperation has resulted in publication of a book, in 2004, on traditional and modern archery in Bhutan and the Netherlands, and a documentary film on Bhutan Olympic Archery to be screened in Germany and international channels. Similar cooperation has been extended to football by the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) In 2004 the Bhutan Archery Federation was honored with a Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands.