ATLANTA — Many Americans watching the Olympics might catch a glimpse of our friends from across the Atlantic competing as Team GB - as in Great Britain - and wonder why they don't go by the name of their country, the United Kingdom.
If the thought has crossed your mind and you're looking for an answer, buckle up for some geography, because the short answer basically boils down to: Northern Ireland is why.
See, the United Kingdom is one country composed of four distinct countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (fans of the show "Ted Lasso" might recall Jason Sudeikis' famous quip, "How many countries are in this country?").
Without getting too into the weeds of how the government of the United Kingdom works, think of it as a distant cousin to how territories like Puerto Rico and Guam are part of the United States but self-governing (it's not a great analogy, because Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland have significant involvement in the UK national government in ways Puerto Rico does not, but don't get too stuck on that.)
So while the UK refers to the political union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Great Britain refers only to the island of Great Britain, which is composed of England, Scotland and Wales.
Northern Ireland sits on the island of Ireland, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland, its own country separate from the UK (if you're wondering, yes, there is a whole lot of political history behind that division of Ireland that we won't be getting into).
So, to recap - the UK is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; Great Britain is just England, Scotland and Wales.
The official name of the UK, in fact, is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Here's where the Olympics come back in.
The UK's official Olympic team name is the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team - but that's not very catchy. Beginning in 1999, they shortened it to the snappier "Team GB."
And, yes, this is a sore spot among some in Northern Ireland. The country's sports minister once said the Team GB name "excludes, and indeed alienates, the people of Northern Ireland."
There is one more layer to it - broadly speaking, athletes from Northern Ireland don't actually automatically have to compete with Team GB. In most cases they can choose, if they want, to compete with Ireland under the Republic of Ireland flag.
This year, there are 31 athletes from Northern Ireland at the Olympics, most of them competing with Team Ireland.
That distinction probably also plays some of the role in Great Britain taking prominence in the Team GB name at the expense, to a certain extent, of fully including Northern Ireland.