Tuvalu (TUV)

For many years, Tuvalu was one of only two wholly independent nations of the world without an International Olympic Committee (IOC)-recognized National Olympic Committee (along with the Vatican City). This changed on 6 July 2007, when the IOC gave recognition to Tuvalu at the IOC Session in Guatemala City. At Beijing 2008, Tuvalu made its Olympic début, represented by three athletes: two men and a woman, who competed in track & field athletics and weightlifting. Tuvalu has also competed at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games, but it has not yet competed at the Winter Olympics.

Tuvalu has not yet won an Olympic medal. Through 2022, the nation’s best result came in 2012, when weightlifter Tuau Lapua Lapua placed 11th in a field of 15 competitors in the men’s featherweight class.