Highlights: Sierra Leone took part in the Olympic Games for the first time in 1968 when an all-male, three-member team travelled to Mexico City to compete in boxing and athletics events. The NOC did not send a team to a Games again until 1980.

Boxer Israel Cole, competing in the light-middleweight division, was beaten in the quarterfinals in Los Angeles in 1984, leaving him in equal-fifth position, a result that has only been equalled by one athlete from Sierra Leone.

Eunice Barber was that athlete, and she recorded her fifth-place finish in the heptathlon event at the Games in Atlanta in 1996. Barber excelled in the long jump and 800m on the way to her equal-best NOC result. She returned to the Olympic Games in 2000, this time competing for France, but could not match her 1996 performance. She also represented France at the 2004 Games, placing 28th in the women’s long jump. Barber competed in four editions of the Games over her 12-year Olympic career, representing Sierra Leone twice [1992, 1996] and France on two occasions [2000, 2004].

At the 2016 Games in Rio, the NOC sent a four-member team to compete in athletics and swimming.