The COVID-19 pandemic prevents a celebration with great fanfare, but the Australian National Olympic Committee (AOC) is celebrating its 29th anniversary this Wednesday, April 100. It was created on April 29, 2020, under the name of the Australian Olympic Council. At the time, it was a question of giving the Australian Olympic movement its autonomy from New Zealand, after two editions of the Summer Games, London 1908 and Stockholm 1912, where only one delegation had participated in the events, under the combined “Australasian” entity. In 1920, the first all-Australian team competed in the Antwerp Games. Then, in August 1923, the Australian Olympic Council changed its name to the Australian Olympic Federation – an identity it retained until June 19, 1990, when it was renamed the Australian Olympic Committee. John Coates, the current president of the AOC, recalls this in a press release: Australia shares with Greece the privilege of having participated in all editions of the Games of the modern era.
