Mercè Varela, Andreu

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

A C E N T U R Y  AND A H A L F  
O F  SPORT IN B A R C E L O N A  
THE CELEBRATION OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN BARCELONA 
IN 1992 MARKS THE CULMINATION OF A LONG PERIOD OF 
CONTINUED HARD WORK. 
A N D R E U  M E R C E  V A R E L A  J O U R N A L I S T  
city like Barcelona, open to the 
Mediterranean, accessible to al1 
the civilizations of. the old world, 
and with its fertile Latin irnagination, could 
not help but respond to the cal1 of sport, 
and now to that of the Olyrnpics. The peo- 
ples who dorninated the ancient world, 
Phoenicians, Greeks, Rornans, the Ger- 
rnanic tribes, Arabs, Franks and others 
who left their rnark on the different civili- 
zations which ruled the West in the early 
days of the Christian era, al1 passed in turn 
through Catalonia at the peak of their de- 
veloprnent, and each left our country with 
the benefits and the evils that al1 invasions 
bring with thern. 
Luckily, the Greeks left the Catalan coast 
with their sporting concept of education, 
which transforrned the lberian rnentality 
of sport, replacing the folklore and rivalry 
which had presided over the events orga- 
nized by the inhabitants of Catalonia 
before our era. Ernpúries was the site of 
the peninsula's first stadiurn, first gyrnna- 
siurn and the first palestra, where wrest- 
ling rnatches were held between pa- 
tricians and invaders. The Greek colony of 
Ernpúries was alrnost certainly familiar 
with the traditional celebration held every 
four years in Olyrnpia. 
The Rornan invasion also introduced the 
concept of cornpetitive sport to our coast. 
There is evidence of this in the decorative 
style of rnuch cerarnics, and especially in 
the splendid rnosaic which can be seen 
at the Archaeological Museum of Barce- 
lona, depicting a chariot race set in Barce- 
lona. 
When the rnodern concept of sport took 
shape, at the end of last century, it was 
quickly understood in Barcelona and to a 
certain extent over the whole of our coun- 
try. Before this, there were the isolated 
cases of sporting events on horseback. 
There is an exarnple of this sort of rnedie- 
val cornpetition in the second book of El 
Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la 
Mancha, in which Miguel de Cervantes 
describes a duel between the hero and 
the "Knight of the Black Moon" on a 
Barcelona beach which could well be that 
of Somorrostro. 
In the rniddle of the last century, when the 
English decided the tules for football, 
boxing, regattas, athletics and other 
sports, Barcelona, Terrassa, Tarragona 
and other Catalan cities soon becarne 
acquainted with rnounted sports, tennis, 
football, sailing, rowing and other events 
already characterized by distinctly British 
regulations; while athletics had, for us, a 
Germanic origin, fencing and cycling 
arrived frorn France, and other sports 
were irnported by Catalan travellers, 
tradesrnen or students. 
The early editions of the Olyrnpic Garnes 
(1 896-1 91 2) found fertile ground in 
Catalonia. Sorne Barcelona newspapers 
-"La Vanguardiar'- published reports 
on the Athens Garnes in 1896, and the 
Paris Garnes, in 1900, were covered by 
this and other publications. At the London 
Garnes, in 1908, and in Stockholrn, in 
1 91 2, there were people frorn Barcelona 
who had gone to experience the un- 
rivalled thrill of the four-yearly event at 
first hand. 
Athletes in Barcelona followed those 
early Garnes with great exciternent, but 
when Picornell, Witiy, Garnper, Vila, Elias 
and others were looking ahead to the 
191 6 Garnes, the First World War broke 
out, and al1 hopes were dashed for the 
time-being. But the seed had fallen on fer- 
tile ground, and detailed preparations 
were rnade for the 1920 Garnes in 
Anvers. The bulk of the Spanish tearn was 
rnade up of footballers and swirnrners. In 
swirnrning, representation was alrnost ex- 
clusively Catalan, since the chance to take 
part had arisen on the Barceloneta beach, 
at the Barcelona Swirnrning Club, where 
the waterpolo players who forrned the 
basis of the team were trained. Football 
had already caught on here on a rnassive 
scale and produced narnes like Josep 
Sarnitier and Ricard Zarnora, who were to 
leave their rnark for ever on the history of 
our sport. 
When the Olyrnpic athletes of 1920 re- 
turned to Barcelona, enthusiasrn for the 
Garnes spread like wildfire, and a 
carefully prepared carnpaign presented 
Barcelona as a candidate for the 1924 
Garnes, based on the breakwater swirn- 
rning pool (Barcelona Swimming Club 
1923), the Fuxarda stadiurn, the ground 
at Les Corts and the decision of the Barce- 
lona City Council and the governrnent of 
the Mancomunitat to support the Garnes. 
The candidature presented by Paris, the 
horne town of Baron de Coubertin, which 
was anxious to erase the poor irnage left 
by the Paris Olyrnpics of 1900, was more 
successful than Barcelona's proposals, 
though these had aroused great expecta- 
tions in the press and the city in general. 
Barcelona was not put off by the disap- 
pointrnent of 1924 and, spurred on by the 
Exposició Internacional of 1 929, built a 
stadium on Montiuic which dauled the 
world of sport. The 50  metre pool was the 
first in Spain to be built to Olympic stand- 
ards and, until the sixities, the only one. 
Basketball and handball courts (the 
former an Olympic sport as from 1936) 
were also built on Montiuic, while the 
city's sports facilities were completed with 
the grounds at Les Corts and Sarria. 
Barcelona aspired to the 1936 Olympic 
Games and the host city had to be de- 
cided in l 931. It was arranged that that 
year's session of the lnternational Olym- 
pic Committee be held in Barcelona, so 
that the members voting could get to 
know the city, its sports facilities and the 
general atmosphere. But eight days 
before the meeting, on 14th April 1931, 
the Republic was proclaimed in Spain, 
and in some cities churches were burnt 
and there were puclic disturbances that 
were much talked about abroad. Many 
members of the Committee did not come 
to Barcelona and the meeting failed to 
reach the necessary quorum for the deci- 
sion to be taken. This was a serious blow 
for Barcelona's Olympic aspirations. The 
special postal vote which was requested, 
conditioned by political events, gave the 
1936 Games to the city of Berlin. The 
leading figures in sport in Barcelona saw 
the 1 931 disaster as iust another reason 
for trying again, and Barcelona was once 
more put forward for nomination, this time 
for 1940. Amongst other cities applying 
for Olympic designation were Tokyo and 
Helsinki. The decision had to be taken in 
Berlin, at the lnternational Olympic 
Committee meeting at the start of the 
1936 Games. Yet another political upset 
-the Spanish Civil War- prevented 
Barcelona's representatives, the Spanish 
member of the I.O.C., Baron de Güell, the 
mayor, Carles Pi-Suñer, the president of 
the Spanish Olympic Committee, Dr. 
August Pi-Suñer, and the executive 
members, Messalles Estivill, Santiago Gar- 
cia Alsina, Ricard Cabot, and other fig- 
ures, from travelling to Berlin to give 
Barcelona their official support. Tokyo 
was nominated but was unable to or- 
ganize the Games because Japan was at 
war with China, and in 1938 they were 
assigned to Helsinki, which also had to 
forgo the opportunity, because of the war 
with the U.S.S.R., and that edition of the 
Games was never celebrated. 
With the recovery of Catalan sport after 
the war, Barcelona's Olympic vocation 
was not forgotten. In 1951, it was nomi- 
nated to host the II Mediterranean 
Games, and in 1955 the city lived the 
greatest sporting event of its history. In his 
closing speech, the vice-president of the 
I.O.C., Armand Massard, said that "Barce- 
lona now deserves to organize the Olym- 
I r -  
pic Garnes". Such a categorical staternent 
s~urred on the tearn headed by Joan 
Antoni Sarnaranch and the drearn began 
to take shape. The City Council of the time 
was not rnuch in favour of accepting the 
challenge of organizing such an irn- 
portant event, but a detailed study was 
rnade and the prornotors were finally 
given the go-ahead for the 1 972 nornina- 
tion carnpaign. The decision had to be 
taken in Rorne in 1966 and the candida- 
tures had to be presented in Lausanne 
before 31 st Decernber 1965. But on that 
date, while Sarnaranch and his tearn were 
in Sydney, the Spanish Olyrnpic Cornrnit- 
tee, the only organisrn authorized to 
support the application by a city in Spain, 
presented a hybrid, Madrid-Barcelona 
proposal, which involved the Spanish 
capital as the Olyrnpic seat and aquatic 
events -rowing, sailing, swirnrning, 
waterpolo and diving- in Barcelona. The 
I.O.C. turned it down and Munich was 
elected for the 1972 Garnes. 
The deterrnination of those behind Barce- 
lona's candidature did not dirninish. Work 
started in 1978 with the 1992 Garnes in 
rnind. According to the established order 
by which successive editions of the Garnes 
were held in different continents (Europe, 
Arnerica and Asia), after Moscow 1980, 
the next chance for Europe would be in 
1992. Barcelona City Council and its 
leader, Narcís Serra, had no doubts 
whatsoever and the Generalitat suppor- 
ted the undertaking frorn the very first 
rnornent. The sports federations and the 
Spanish Olyrnpic Cornrnitiee also gave 
their support. The work was done in 
groups and carried out exhaustively and 
efficiently, and in October 1986, the 
eighty rnernbers of the I.O.C. chose the 
Catalan city in the third round of voting, 
followed by Paris, Belgrade, Arnsterdarn 
and Brisbane. The mayor, Pasqual Ma- 
ragall, the president, Jordi Pujol, the head 
of the governrnent, Felipe González, the 
Catalan governrnent's delegate to the 
COOB'92, Josep Miquel Abad, and al1 
the authorities and al1 sectors of Catalan 
society without exception were in Lau- 
sanne that 17th October 1986 to live one 
of Barcelona's rnost gratifying rnoments. 
In Barcelona, in Catalonia, and also 
throughout the rest of the state, there 
were celebrations like never before to 
rnark this important date for our country. 
Now, the job of seeing it through is 
everybody's. The experts, the athletes, the 
press, the organizers ... but it will be mainly 
the people of our country who, fully 
understanding the significance of the 
Olyrnpic Garnes, will give thern their 
enthusiastic support. Without thern, 
the Olyrnpic Garnes would be mean- 
ingless. 


A Century and a Half of Sport in Barcelona

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert