Re: Which flags compete in the Olympics?

prodigal1 wrote:
On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 00:32:25 +0000, Robert Katz wrote:


The country of Scotland, for example, competes under their own banner at
soccer, curling, and other sporting matches. All the Olympic curlers from
Great Britain, men and women, were Scots. Why couldn't they compete as
Scotland? What are the Olympic rules for allowing a country to compete
under its own flag? How would a competetor from Northern Ireland compete?
Although he belongs to the political entity of the United Kingdom, he is
not from Great Britain, which comprises England, Scotland, and Wales. Is
a Northern Irelander forever prohibited from being an Olympian? And if
indeed he can compete under the flag of Northern Ireland, then why can't a
Scot be from Scotland?


technically Northern Ireland is a province of Great Britain, and so
competing under the flag of Northern Ireland would not seem to be
possible. My N.I. born wife sitting next to me knows nothing of an
official flag for N.I. by the way. As to the Scots, I'll bet this flag
thing was an issue for them.


I think the British Union Flag (the Union Jack), the superposition of the flags of St George of England, St Andrew of Scotland, and St Patrick of Ireland is the flag of Northern Ireland. I don't believe Northern Ireland is a province of Great Britain; rather it is a member of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. So, a variation of my question is, why doesn't the team whose representatives may come from either Britain (Scotland, Wales, England) or Northern Ireland call itself the team from the United Kingdom (UK) instead of calling itself the team from Great Britain (GB)? Great Britain seems to be an inconsistency (unless, as I said, you're forever excluding a Northern Ireland athlete), along with an effrontery to its member nations, which compete at other athletic events as separate countries, but not so at the Olympics. Why?

--
Regards,

---Robert
.

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