Olympic meddle: MEPS could set up Team EU for 2036 Games
MEPS have held secret discussions about entering a European Union team in the 2036 Olympics, which would give the EU a chance to beat Team GB in the medal table.
They believe the 100th anniversary of the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics – hijacked by the Nazis for propaganda purposes – will provide the perfect opportunity to show the world how much Europe has achieved thanks to the EU.
However, a British MEP has described the idea as “a crazy attempt to destroy national identity”, driven in part by “jealousy” over Team GB’S successes in London and Rio.
Team GB came second to the USA in the medal table in Rio 2016, with 27 golds and 67 medals in total. British sports fans were riled when a German PR firm circulated a medal table claiming the EU had “won” the Games by adding up the medals won by all 28 member states, including Britain.
The idea was picked up by a Spanish lobbying firm, which wrote to MEPS suggesting that the 2036 Games would be the ideal chance to enter Europe as “a single participant”. The only people likely to object, the lobbyists suggested, were national Olympic committees “with their small interests”.
Berlin was suggested as the perfect location for the Games, “to explain the changes that have taken place in German society”.
The suggestion prompted “serious” debate among MEPS, according to Bill Etheridge, the Ukip MEP for the West Midlands, though there has been no formal discussion of it in the European Parliament.
He said: “There have been quite a lot of conversations about it among other MEPS and it was being taken quite seriously by some of them.
“They were using the word solidarity, which tends to be code for evercloser union. It speaks to their plan to create a united states of Europe.
“I’m almost certain there was some jealousy at Britain’s success in 2012 and 2016, and they want a piece of our success.
“It’s a crazy EU effort to destroy national identity.”
Team GB won as many gold medals in Rio as Germany and France combined, though the EU 27 – not including Britain – won 79 medals between them, which would have put them comfortably at the top of the medal table.
Britain would have come third in Rio had the rest of the EU competed as a single entity.
The German region of North Rhinewestphalia has formed a plan to bid for the 2032 Olympics, but so far no city has expressed a firm intention to bid for 2036.