(ATR) The decision to allow athletes from the Faroe Islands to compete at the second European Games later this year is being called a "quantum leap" forward in Faroese efforts to gain Olympic recognition.
The European Olympic Committees (EOC) Executive Committee ruling ensures that Faroese athletes can participate in EOC events, including the European Games, in sports where the Faroe Islands already have a recognized sport federation.
For the European Games in Minsk this June, that means Faroese will be able to compete in archery, badminton, judo and table tennis. But the ruling will also allow athletes from the four other sports in the Faroe Islands with a recognized federation – football, handball, swimming and volleyball - to compete at other EOC events.
"To me, it’s a quantum leap. It really changes our situation," Jon Hestoy, Vice President of the Faroese Confederation of Sports and Olympic Committee (FCSOC), tells Around the Rings. "It might be for the thirsty a drop of water… but suddenly we feel we’re not in the same deadlock we were a year ago."
The EOC is still not recognizing the Faroe Islands even though it is allowing Faroese athletes to compete. The Faroes, a self-governing region of Denmark, launched its latest campaign to get into the Olympics in March of last year. If it succeeds, it would be the culmination of an ambition that is 40 years old.
An FCSOC delegation, including Hestoy, met last month in Lausanne with IOC Director of NOC Relations Pere Miró, IOC Head of Institutional Relations & Governance Jérôme Poivey, Danish NOC President Niels Nygaard and EOC secretary general Raffaele Pagnozzi.
Hestoy said the subject of IOC recognition for the Faroes was discussed at length in what he calls "a really frank exchange of our views of these things". And while Hestoy admits the IOC’s position to keep the Faroes out of the Olympics remains unchanged, he says his team came out of the meeting with the feeling that while the "deadlock hasn’t opened up" it is starting to move.
The talks in Lausanne in December and the EOC decision on Friday are certainly two reasons to be optimistic, and are evidence that the campaign for recognition is making a difference.
"I must say I didn’t expect anything to happen the first year or the second year and now things are… well, not moving but it’s opening up a little bit," Hestoy says. "So we are happy, extremely happy."
"We will run this campaign until it succeeds. Rather sooner than later. But I will guarantee you we will not take the foot off the throttle. Instead we will work even harder."
"We’re used to getting the door slammed in our face and now we feel like we have a foot in the door."
Written by Gerard Farek
For general comments or questions,click here.
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
