Great Olympians - Nationalities

A Nationality is a characteristic for a given person, which does not change during someone's lifetime (although there are many exceptions to this - see the list).

On the other hand, countries do often change name, countries split or merge, territories change allegiance.  Through that process, many athletes have changed the country they represent from one Olympiad to another.  These athletes are always listed as having one single nationality, throughout their Olympic career.

This one nationality is expressed in present-day terms.  Thus, the athletes representing Bohemia in the early 1900's are listed as "Czech" nationals, even if they would never have dreamt there would ever be something like a "Czech Republic".

In almost all cases (starting in 1906), it is clear which nation a particular athlete represented.  It is the nation whose National Olympic Committee sent him to the Olympic Games. An athlete's nationality is not so straightforward though.

In deciding on the nationality of an athlete, I have followed the following rules :

• The nationality is always determined by the country represented. When an athlete changes nationality after his Olympic Career, this is not noted in the lists
• When a represented country has merged with one or more others, the new nationality is that of the greater country. All East (and West) Germans are listed under the German nationality.
• When a represented country has split in two or more other countries, the athletes that represented that country in any previous Olympiad will receive one of the new nationalities.  The criteria used for this can vary from case to case and include, in order of preference:
  • Country later represented at the Olympics
  • Country represented in any other sporting event
  • Country represented in internal competition
  • Country of residence, or nationality, immediately after the split
  • Language, or even Religion
  • Place of Birth
• In some cases, I have used the "nephew" rule. For that, I imagine that the athlete has a brother, one year younger than him, and not a sportsman. That brother has a son or (great-)grandson, who lives today. Neither the brother nor his offspring have done anything special, and the current-day nationality of the nephew determines the nationality of his (great-)(grand-)uncle. That way we can distinguish between people whose parents have emigrated and people who have emigrated themselves. The rule is useful in deciding that the Smyrna team of 1906 should be classed as Greek (Smyrna, in present-day Turkey, was a Greek city at the time. All Greek nationals were forced to emigrate after 1923)
• below are a few special cases :

Years	NOC	Region/City	History	Nationality	Athletes
1896- 1906	Great Britain	Ireland	independent after 1922	Ireland	Ireland (1896), Ireland (1900), Ireland (1904), Ireland (1906)
1908		Northern Ireland	part of Great Britain	Great Britain	R. C. Robb David Stevenson Francis Guy
1896, 1906	Hungary	Slovakia	part of Czechoslovakia after 1918, Slovakia since 1993	Slovakia	Aljoz Szokol, Juraj Luntzer
1896, 1906		Vojvodina	part of Yugoslavia after 1918, Serbia since 1991	Serbia	Momcilo Tapavica, Sztantics György
1906		Cluj	part of Romania after 1918, Hungarian population still present	Romania	István Somodi
1896, 1906	Ottoman Empire	Smyrna, Pergamum, Constantinopel	part of Turkey after 1922, all Greeks emigrated to Greece, foreign nationals counted in their own nationality, Turk counted as Turkish	Greece	Loverdos, Dimitrios Tombrof, Greece (1906)
				Armenia	Zareck Couyoumdzian
				France	France
				Great Britain	Great Britain
				Turkey	Vahran Papazyan
1906		Thessaloniki, Crete, Samos	part of Greece after 1922	Greece	Greece (1906)
1896, 1906		Cyprus	British after 1922 Independent after 1960	Cyprus	Anastasios Andreou, Cyprus (1906)
1900	Austria	Croatia	part of Yugoslavia after 1918, Croatia since 1991	Croatia	Milan Neralic
1906		Silesia	part of Poland after 1918	Poland	Otto Scheff
1900	France	Algeria	independent 1961	Algeria	Algeria (1900)
1904	Canada	Newfoundland	part of Canada since 1949	Canada	Bob Fowler

Special cases :

• Algeria - in 1900, 4 athletes from Algeria participated as French nationals
• Armenia - in 1906, 1 athlete from Armenia competed in the team from the city of Smyrna
• Austria - before 1914, Austria included territories now in Czechia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and Poland.  One Polish competitor is listed from this age, as a Polish national
• Sudetenland (Coxed Fours)
• Cyprus - in 1896 and 1906, athletes from Cyprus competed. Cyprus was then a part of the Ottoman Empire
• Czech Republic - includes athletes from Bohemia (1900-12)
• Egypt - in 1896 and 1906, Greek athletes from Alexandria competed.  They are listed as Egyptians
• Finland - before 1914, Finland was a part of Russia, but it did send a separate delegation. Vyborg: Alppo Asikainen, Kalle Ekholm, Antti Tamminen, Harry Wahl, Waldemar Björkstén, Jacob Björnström, Bror Brenner, Allan Franck, Erik Lindh, Juho Aarne Pekkalainen - Karelia: Aarne Pelkonen
• Gernamy - Poland: Many Germans lived in parts of what are now Poland (including Danzig - Gdansk), Russia and even Lithuania. Karl Bechler, Arthur Hoffmann, Heinrich Hoffmann, Benno Wandolleck, Walther Binner, Georg Kunisch, Oswald Rathmann, Georg Warsow, Walter Bathe, Erwin von Sigel, Sigismund Freyer, Max Bröske
• Hungary - Romania: Cluj is a Hungarian city in present-day Romania. Even today there are many Hungarian speakers in this town. I consider Hungarians (pre-1914) who came from this town as Romanian. Somodi István
• Iceland - in 1908 and 1912, Iceland was a part of Denmark, and Icelandic athletes competed in the Danish team.
• Ireland - before 1914, Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom and Irish athletes competed in the British teams
• Italy - contained parts of Slovenia before WWII, but five rowers from Isola are regarded as Italians nevertheless
• New Zealand - in 1908 and 1912, New Zealand atheletes competed together with Australians in a team called Australasia.
• Poland - before 1914, parts of Poland belonged to Austria, and parts to Russia.  Two Polish competitors are listed from this age, as Polish nationals
• Slovakia - in 1896, one athlete participating for Hungary was from Slovakia; in 1912 there were several.
• Turkey - in 1896 and 1906, several athletes competed from the Ottoman Empire, but most of them were Greek nationals, and they are listed as Greeks, even those from Smyrna, Constantinopel and Pergamum, then cities with great Greek populations, but now wholly in Turkey. All Greek nationals were removed from the Turkish mainland in 1923. One competitor from Constantinopel in 1906 was a Turk, however.
• Yugoslavia - in 1896, one athlete participating for Hungary was from Vojvodina, now a part of Yugoslavia; in 1912, Serbia sent 2 athletes.
• people that switched Nationalities
• Isle of Man: Sidney Swann

Written 2001-03-09 - last modified 2010-12-22

This page is part of the site "Full Olympians" by Herman De Wael. See here for a full Introduction.