Why is that GB's competing at the olympics and not UK ? why using the Union Jack so ?

Question

@ solara you mean the blue thing with blasted stripes ? not sure...

Answer 1

Had N. Ireland won a gold then it would have been Uk. It was originally like that  Mary Peters won gold ( from N. Ireland ) Getting silver .0005 seconds behind Chris Hoy( Jason P. from N. Ireland ) is not enough. However in this case GB does indeed include N. Ireland athletes.

Answer 2

It is UK but they've opted to use GBR as the abbreviation because it has three letters and three letter abbreviations are what all countries use at the Olympics . There is no other reason for it than that.

Answer 3

because there isn;t a flag or a national anthem for GB (as opposed to UK)

I think athletes from Northern Ireland have the choice of competing for GB or Ireland.

It's not ideal, I agree.

Answer 4

Great Britain was the name assigned to the United Kingdom team by the International Olympic Committee[citation needed] for the 1908 Summer Olympics along with the IOC country code GBR. The team is also referred to as Team GB or Great Britain and Northern Ireland.[2]

Under the terms of a long-standing settlement between the British Olympic Association and the Olympic Council of Ireland, athletes from Northern Ireland can elect to represent the Ireland team instead of the Great Britain team.

Answer 5

The United Kingdom Includes Southern Ireland who compete separately, Great Britain is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who collectively use the Union Jack x

Oops maybe i was wrong then :D

Answer 6

The Union Jack IS the flag of Great Britain. England's flag is the cross of St George.

It is a similar situation to the USA.

At one time it was the Republic of California, the Republic of Texas etc... In other words a number of autonomous states, who, by mutual consent and the spoils of war banded to gether to become the UNITED states.

Britain, in much the same way, was once a number of Kingdoms (in fact, going back to Alfred the Great a large number of Kingdoms). Over the centuries these Kingdoms were by agreement, alliance, war, etc banded together to form the UNITED Kingdom of Great Britain.

So, in the same way as individual states in the US retain their individual identity, it is the same for the individual Kingdoms of the UK but in both cases they are Unified under one flag.

Hope that helps:)

Answer 7

The team's official name is Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and it's just shortened to Great Britain for ease

GB and NI is the UK

Answer 8

Have you ever seen a UK flag?