The Catalans in (Olympic) Command, Despite the Catalans: How the Governance of Spanish Sport Moved from Madrid to Barcelona in the Early 1920s

Identifier:  imarina:9475691

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9475691

Authors:  López, Bernat

Abstract:
Despite Catalonia being one of the most industrialized and developed regions of Spain (in capitalist terms) for most of the twentieth century, no Catalan is among the list of thirty-six prime ministers who governed the country during that period. Sports governance offers a very different picture, as seven Catalans have served as president of the Spanish Olympic Committee. Catalan influence even reached the top of the international Olympic movement through Juan Antonio Samaranch, one of the most influential presidents (1980–2001) in IOC history, and continues to the present day through his son, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., one of the Committee’s vice presidents and a candidate in the March 2025 presidential election. The objective of this article is to critically explore the process that led to the “Catalan takeover” of the Spanish Olympic movement in 1924, which is at the origins of this influence. Although in line with Catalan sporting supremacy of the time and also with the ambition of its leaders (the Catalan nationalist party Lliga Regionalista) to govern Spain, this takeover was achieved against the latter’s will and, what is even more paradoxical, under the anti-Catalanist Primo de Rivera dictatorship.