On the eve of the official opening ceremony for the FINA World Championships in Barcelona this Friday, members of the Catalan swimming community – swimmers, officials and clubs – will meet next door to the BCN2013 venues at the Montjuic Olympic Park to vote for independence.
Barcelona and Catalonia are home to many of Spain’s best swimmers, including double Olympic silver medallist Mireia Belmonte and a strong team from Sabadell. The campaigners have grown tired of creating the wealth and opportunity – Barcelona will play host to the FINA showcase for the second time in 10 years this summer – and getting nothing back from a cash-strapped Spain, say organisers of the breakaway movement.
The Catalan Swimming Manifesto, penned by a group under the name Catalan Swimming for Independence Association, will be put to the vote on Thursday evening at the Olympic park in the Catalan capital. It echoes the wider independence movement for Catalonia in Spain. If the vote is won, a request for separate membership of FINA would follow.
The politics of such a move would be complex to say the least. There are examples in the world where the Olympic movement does not follow the specific political borders of nations, Ireland north and south swimming as one and the able-bodied swimmers of the Faroes forced to swim for Denmark (against the wishes of the faroes and Denmark) while the paralympic swimmers from the Faroes swim in the colours of their own country.
The meeting will be held at the Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya building neighbouring the Bernat Picornell pool that hosts the 1992 Olympic Games swimming and will feature men’s and women’s water polo during the world championships next week.
Full article and Manifesto (English version)
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