Question about Duke Kahanamoku

[BillVol]

Why did he compete for the US and not for the territory of Hawai'i, as Puerto Ricans do, for example?

[gh]

Puerto Rico is a self-governing commonwealth. Hawai'i was a territory administered by the U.S.

[jhc68]

Do Puerto Ricans have a choice of opting to qualify for the US team or the PR team? I believe that was once the case.

[bambam]

Do Puerto Ricans have a choice of opting to qualify for the US team or the PR team? I believe that was once the case.

Yes, they do, since they carry US passports. Duke could not compete for Hawai'i because Hawai'i did not have a National Olympic Committee. After 1904, with rare exception, you have to represent an NOC at the Olympics. The territory/commonwealth thing is sort of nebulous. What defined an NOC was never very clear, allowing Puerto Rico, Guam, British Virgin Islands, Aruba, Palestine to be NOCs when they were part of the USA/USA/GBR/NED/???. More recently, the IOC has said this will no longer be allowed for future NOCs, as they must be independent nations to be a recognized NOC. This affects several GPEs (geopolitical entities, as defined by Gynn/Martin in their book on the Olympic Marathon), notably Greenland, Gibraltar, Quebec, and Iroquois Nation, all of which have "NOCs" which have tried to get IOC recognition, without success. Gibraltar has been trying for years, since the 1980s, but the problem there was that Spain refuses to recognize the island entity, and when Samaranch was IOC President that was not going anywhere.