L'Indipendente

On November 1st, 2004, I sent a proposal to all Olympic Committees of European Union. The proposal was very simple: to select, before the beginning of the games, no more than three athletes for each competition out of those ones participating for the various countries of European Union. Therefore, those athletes would compete for two flags: the one of their own nation and the European Union's one. Of course, it was ignored.

The purpose of this idea was to draw together all citizens of European Union around a common sense of sporting spirit. Political union is a must by now, but it requires a social and cultural union first. The fact that we speak different languages is an obstacle, so we have to find other elements to really feel a single nation. Sport could be one of those elements. So, now we are in 2008 and I wish to propose again that idea for the Olympic Games of 2012 in London, UK (EU).

In fact, from a sporting perspective, we are used to think that the giants are United States, Russia, and China, but if we consider all the medals won in the last Olympic Games by the countries belonging to European Union, the situation is quite different. Of course, just adding up all medals and comparing the results with those ones corresponding to the three current giants of sport is not a correct approach, since if European Union would be a federation like USA, it should send to the Games much less athletes that those partecipating for each single EU country. In any case, it is interesting to give a look at the resulting table:

Nation     European Union United States Russia China

XXVI 1996 Atlanta USA ALL 75 68 86 229 44 32 25 101 26 21 16 63 16 22 12 50

XXVII 2000 Sidney Australia ALL 79 80 79 238 40 24 33 97 32 28 28 88 28 16 16 59

XXVIII 2004 Athene Greece ALL 80 101 105 286 36 39 27 102 27 27 38 92 32 17 14 63

Updated on August 26th, 2008.

Nation     European Union United States Russia China

XXIX 2008 Beijing China ALL 85 100 89 274 36 37 36 109 23 21 28 72 51 21 28 100