El Comité Olímpico Español: un siglo de historia

espanolLos Comites Olimpicos Nacionales tuvieron unos procesos de nacimiento, evolucion y consolidacion que implicaron generalmente azarosas historias. Las dificultades iniciales fueron generadas de una parte por la incomprension del ideario filosofico que planteaba Pierre de Coubertin, y de otra, por la normal falta de apoyo oficial que estaba acompanada de la transitoriedad operativa de su accion, ya que los Comites se formaban para los Juegos Olimpicos de una Olimpiada concreta. La evolucion historica del Comite Olimpico Espanol no fue ajena a la misma pauta y los avatares politicos e historicos le llevaron a dejar de existir a finales de 1921, despues de la muerte de su fundador, el Marques de Villamejor, reconstituyendose en 1924 en Barcelona a instancias del Baron de GUel1. El presente articulo recopila y recoge los resultados del trabajo de investigacion llevado a cabo sobre la base de las fuentes primarias que obran en los archivos del Comite Olimpico Internacional y del Comite Olimpico Espanol. Las conclusiones de dicho trabajo han llevado a precisar como fecha de fundacion del COE la del 25 de noviembre de 1912. Esta fecha le situa en el numero 14 del orden fundacional de los 205 Comites Olimpicos Nacionales que hoy existen. EnglishThe National Olympic Committees were born, evolved and consolidated in such a way that their histories are usually somewhat unfortunate. On one hand, the initial difficulties were caused by the misinterpretation of the philosophical ideology proposed by Pierre de Coubertin, and on the other hand, they were caused by a general lack of official support, accompanied by the temporary nature of their activities, considering that the Committees were set up for the Olympic Games of one specific Olympiad. The historical evolution of the Spanish Olympic Committee also followed this pattern and due to both the political and historical vicissitudes, at the end of 1921, after the death of its founder, the Marques de Villamejor, the Spanish Olympic Committee ceased to exist It was later reformed in 1924 in Barcelona at the request of Baron de Guel1. The following article compiles and gathers together the results of research carried out on primary sources located in the archives of both the International Olympic Committee and the Spanish Olympic Committee. The conclusions of this research indicate that 25th November 1912 was the date on which the Spanish Olympic Committee was founded. This date brings the Spanish Olympic Committee into 14th position regarding the order in which the current 205 National Olympic Cornmittees were founded.