List of Olympic Games boycotts

The Olympic Games is a major international multi-sport event. South Africa were not invited to the 1964 Games, while its invitation to the 1968 Games was withdrawn after several other African countries threatened to boycott the Games due to apartheid. South Africa would not be permitted to return to the Olympics until 1992. Rhodesia was also prevented from entering the 1972 Summer Olympics when its invitation was withdrawn by the International Olympic Committee following protests by other African countries. Possibly the most famous Olympic boycotts occurred in 1980 and 1984, due to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. Iran and Albania are the only countries that boycotted both the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. Albania is also the only country that boycotted the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics. In 2021, several nations announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics to protest against Chinese mistreatment of the Uyghur population, thus prohibiting many government officials from attending the games in an official capacity, while still permitting athletes to compete. Later, India joined the boycott over China's decision to choose Qi Fabao, a regimental commander in the People's Liberation Army, as a torchbearer for the event.

List of full boycotts of an Olympic Games or full non-attendance

Olympiad	Year	Host Country	Host City	Boycotting countries
				List	Map
XVI	1956	Australia	Melbourne	Egypt Iraq Lebanon Liechtenstein Monaco Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Cambodia Panama Spain Switzerland China	Countries boycotting the 1956 Games are shaded blue
XVIII	1964	Japan	Tokyo	North Korea Indonesia China	Countries boycotting the 1964 Games are shaded red
XXI	1976	Canada	Montreal	Afghanistan Albania Algeria Benin Burkina Faso Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Republic of the Congo Egypt Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Guyana Iraq Kenya Libya Lesotho Madagascar Malawi Mali Morocco Myanmar Niger Nigeria Somalia Sri Lanka Sudan Eswatini Syria Chinese Taipei Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia	Countries boycotting the 1976 Games are shaded blue
XXII	1980	Soviet Union (now part of Russia)	Moscow	Albania (no reason given) File:Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.svgAntigua and Barbuda Argentina Bahamas File:Flag of Bahrain.svgBahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belize Bermuda Bolivia Canada Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Egypt El Salvador Fiji Gabon Gambia Ghana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Indonesia Iran Israel Ivory Coast Japan Kenya South Korea Liberia Liechtenstein Malawi Malaysia Mauritania Monaco Mauritius Morocco Netherlands Antilles Niger File:Flag of North Yemen.svgNorth Yemen Norway Pakistan Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Singapore Somalia Sudan Suriname Eswatini Chinese Taipei (protesting the Nagoya Resolution designating it as "Chinese Taipei") Thailand Togo Tunisia Turkey United Arab Emirates United States United States Virgin Islands Uruguay West Germany Zaire	File:1980 Summer Olympics (Moscow) boycotting countries (blue).svg
XXIII	1984	United States	Los Angeles	Soviet Union Bulgaria East Germany Mongolia Vietnam Laos Czechoslovakia Afghanistan Hungary Poland Cuba South Yemen North Korea Ethiopia Angola Albania (no reason given) Iran Burkina Faso Libya	Countries boycotting the 1984 Games are shaded blue
XXIV	1988	South Korea	Seoul	Ethiopia (did not respond to invitation) Nicaragua (financial) Madagascar (financial) Cuba Albania (did not respond to invitation) North Korea Seychelles (did not respond to invitation)	Countries boycotting the 1988 Games are shaded blue

List of non-attendance of government officials or diplomatic boycotts of the Olympic Games

The following is the list of countries that did not send official delegations to the Games, but permitted their athletes to participate.

Games	Year	Host Country	Host City	Boycotting countries
				List	Map
XXXII Olympic Summer Olympics	2020	Japan	Tokyo	North Korea (medical)
XXIV Olympic Winter Games	2022	China	Beijing	Lithuania United States Australia United Kingdom Canada Kosovo Belgium Estonia Taiwan Denmark India	File:2022 Winter Olympics (Beijing) diplomatic boycotting countries (blue).svg

Other

During the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Russia, the United States and United Kingdom diplomatically boycotted the event, and the entire Ukrainian delegation except for their flagbearer boycotted the opening ceremony due to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the violation of the Olympic Truce.