Permanent Secretariat

Tel: +34 93 553 89 58

sportcountries@gencat.cat

© Generalitat de Catalunya 2008

The first international conference of sports countries, to be held in Barcelona, Spain, during the first week of April 2003 and organised by the Generalitat of Catalonia, aims to be an encounter that supports and promotes friendly and co-operative relationships between the organisations, federations, entities and people in the world of sports, regardless of their respective political or governmental circumstances. Accordingly, rather than merely forwarding a legal and political approach, my theoretico-historical contribution will attempt explain how it was that the concepts of "sport nationality" and "sport country" emerged within the context of contemporary competitive sports, in particular, the one I am most familiar with: swimming.

Respecting such premises, clearly, the development of my topic shall thus be anecdotal in nature and above all, expository. My goal will be to show why it has been necessary to signal, within the international rules for swimming competitions, all that is entailed by the representation issues of competitors registered or participating under the name of a country - one that it is not necessarily recognised as a sovereign state but as a region, or an organisation that oversees our sport within a geographic territory or region, which although lacking the recognition or nature of a country or distinct state, at least exhibits certain traits of self-government and independent management in the realm of sports to such an extent that it has been recognised as a country by the relevant international federation.

As I have already mentioned, my intention is not to lead you among the dusty and arid annals of law but rather, by the conversational pathways of the historical need for establishing such concepts in order to improve the management of national representations within the international arena of sports.