Beginning in 1996, teams that qualified for the Olympics were permitted to supplement their rosters with three players not restricted by age in its 18-man final list.
Concacaf is allotted two teams in the 16-nation Olympic Games tournament, decided through a qualifying process that usually begins in the Caribbean approximately one year before the Olympics.
Like most of Concacaf's age-restricted tournaments, the finals are usually contested among eight teams in a single country. The Caribbean is allotted two berths while Central America is granted three. They join North America's three: Canada, Mexico and the United States, divided into two groups of four teams for the group stage, with semifinals and final.
Concacaf Olympic Qualifying
Year Venue Qualifiers
1924 --- United States
1928 --- Mexico, United States
1936 --- United States
1948 --- Mexico, United States
1952 --- Netherlands Antilles, United States
1956 --- United States
1960 Peru None
1964 Mexico *Mexico
1968 Various El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico
1972 Various *Mexico, United States
1976 Various Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, *Mexico
1980 Various ~Cuba, *Costa Rica
1984 Various Canada, *Costa Rica, United States
1988 Various ^Guatemala, United States
1992 Various Mexico, *United States
1996 Canada *Mexico, United States
2000 United States *Honduras, United States
2004 Mexico Costa Rica, *Mexico
2008 United States *Honduras, United States
2012 United States Honduras, *Mexico
No national teams from the North and Central American & Caribbean region participated in the Olympic Games from 1908-1920. Between 1924 and 1956, Concacaf teams were either invited or qualified automatically for the Olympic Games. In 1960, the first Olympic qualifying tournament was held that combined countries from both North and South America but four years later, Concacaf staged its first qualifying event solely for qualifiers for the teams within its region.
*Tournament winner
~Replaced United States, which withdrew
^Replaced Mexico, which was disqualified
