The Monegasque Olympic Committee, the embodiment of the Olympic spirit in Monaco

Chaired by Prince Albert II since 1994, the Monegasque Olympic Committee appoints and leads the country’s sports delegations to the Olympic Games.

When Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, only 241 athletes from 14 countries took part in the first Olympic Games of the modern era, held in Athens in 1896. The IOC formed National Committees to bring together athletes from the five continents and ensure the participation of citizens from every country.

In the Principality, the Papal count Albert Gautier-Vignal thus drafted the creation of the Monegasque Olympic Committee in 1907, making Monaco the 25th nation to join the IOC.

Tasked with promoting Olympic values in the Principality with a focus on sports and education, the MOC encourages the development of high-level sport and fights against all forms of discrimination and violence in sport. The Committee has also established anti-doping policy in the Principality.

Its primary mission is to appoint and lead Monegasque sports delegations to the Olympic Games. The Principality took part in the Summer Olympic Games for the first time in 1920, competing in athletics and gymnastics, and in the Winter Games in 1984.

On the sporting front, in 2022, bobsledders Rudy Rinaldi and Boris Vain finished admirably in sixth place while skier Arnaud Alessandria finished 13th in the alpine combined event. Prince Albert II of Monaco was a member of the Monegasque bobsleigh team at five Olympic Games: Calgary in 1988, Albertville in 1992, Lillehammer in 1994, Nagano in 1998 and Salt Lake City in 2002. His wife, Princess Charlene, competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. “This passion comes from our family heritage”, the Prince explained to Paris Match: “on the Kelly side, my grandfather Jack was an Olympic rowing champion (Olympic gold medal winner in 1920 and 1924) and my uncle John Jr was a four-time Olympic athlete and bronze medal winner in rowing in Melbourne in 1956.  On my father’s side, the Polignacs also have great sportsmen.” Since 1986, Prince Albert of Monaco has been a member of the IOC committee, like his father and grandfather, Pierre de Polignac, before him.