Previously, several athletes from Croatia, Slovenia and northern Serbian province Vojvodina had competed for Austria or Hungary when those countries were part of the Empire of Austria-Hungary.

A small team of two athletes had competed distinctly for Serbia at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

Yugoslavia has been the designation for Olympic teams from three distinct national entities: Two of the successor nations (Croatia and Slovenia) began to compete as independent teams at the Olympics starting at the 1992 Winter Games and Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 1992 Summer Games and as of the 2008 Summer Olympics, all six successor nations, former socialist republics, have participated independently.

All former republics were entitled to state succession, while none of them continued SFR Yugoslavia's international legal personality.

[3] Two of the successor nations (Croatia and Slovenia) began to compete as independent teams at the Olympics starting at the 1992 Winter Games and Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 1992 Summer Games and as of the 2008 Summer Olympics, all six successor nations, former socialist republics, have participated independently.