New Zealand Olympic Committee
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The New Zealand Olympic Committee (before 1994, The New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association) is the body in New Zealand responsible for selecting Athletes to represent New Zealand in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, as well as the Commonwealth Games. While a founder member of the International Olympic Committee, New Zealand did not send its own team to compete until the Games of the VI Olympiad (Antwerp 1920). New Zealand has sent a team to every Summer Olympic Games since then.
[edit] Membership
The NZOC is a member of the International Olympic Committee and the Commonwealth Games Federation.
[edit] Emblem
Its emblem consisting of a depiction of a Silver Fern (New Zealand's sporting emblem) superimposed on the Olympic Rings was created as a marketing symbol in 1979 (which was initially in all-white on a black background). It was first publicly used at an Olympic Games at the Games of the XXII Olympiad (Moscow 1980, in which observers thought that the fern was an olive branch of peace). It went to its current colored version in 1994.
