The National Olympic Committe (NOC) and National Paralympic Committee (NPC) are the bodies within a country which organise and represent the Olympic and Paralympic athletes of that nation. They help to select the team and promote the Olympic and Paralympic Movement in the country. The committees issue pin badges and these NOC and NPC pins are highly collectable by some Olympic pin enthusiasts. This section describes some of the types of pins available and shows examples from Great Britain's NOC and NPC.

Generic Pins - these are issued from time to time and display the committees logo but no dates. They are not produced for a specific Olympics or Paralympic Games, but for general promotion. They tend to be distributed to athletes and committee members.

Games Pins - these are issued for specific Games and are dated and usually contain the name of the host city. They are generally distributed to athletes and officials attending the Games and are a favourite target for pin traders

Sponsor Pins - these are issued by companies which sponsor the national teams. These sponsors are completely separate from Games sponsors, although some companies do sponsor the Games as well as some teams. These pins usually combine the sponsors logo with that of the national committee.

We thought we'd discuss the committees and teams in this country and show examples of our NOC/NPC pins. The NOC for Great Britian and Northern Ireland is the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the NPC is the British Paralympic Association (BPA). Team GB is the name of the team of athletes selected to represent GB at a specific Olympic Games and ParalympicsGB is the brand name of the BPA.

Examples of Generic NOC and NPC pins

Examples of Games NOC Pins


Examples of Sponsor NOC Pins

NOC Pins for London 2012

Due to the vast number of countries in the Olympic and Paralympic movement, this website does not seek to catalogue or display a full range of these pins.

Whilst we're not intending to list all NOC/NPC pins issued for London 2012, we're happy to list any pins that readers tell us about. We will maintain a list, which will contain pins that we come across or are told about and that are linked to London 2012 (i.e. not generic pins). This list does not seek to be a definitive catalogue.