Upper Volta at the 1972 Summer Olympics union team shortly before the Olympics. The majority of the 28 countries in the Olympic boycott were African nations. When the country returned to the Olympics, in 1988, they would be known as Burkina Faso. Upper Volta at the 1972 Summer Olympics The Republic of Upper Volta (as Upper Volta) competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. This was the first and only time the country participated under that name at the Olympic Games. However, the first Upper Voltan athletes took part in the Olympics at the 1924 Games as part of the French contingent. André Bicaba
French Upper Volta French Upper Volta Upper Volta () was a colony of French West Africa established on 1 March 1919, from territories that had been part of the colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger and the Côte d'Ivoire. The colony was dissolved on 5 September 1932, with parts being administered by the Côte d'Ivoire, French Sudan and the Colony of Niger. After World War II, on 4 September 1947, the colony was revived as a part of the French Union, with its previous boundaries. On 11 December 1958, it was reconstituted as the self-governing Republic of Upper Volta within the French Community,