Olympic Committee of Portugal

Olympic Committee of Portugal

Olympic Committee of Portugal logo
Country/Region	Portugal
Code	POR
Created	October 26, 1909
Recognized	1909
Continental Association	EOC
Headquarters	Lisbon, Portugal
President	José Manuel Constantino
Secretary General	José Manuel Araújo
Website	www.comiteolimpicoportugal.pt

The Olympic Committee of Portugal (Portuguese: Comité Olímpico de Portugal; pronounced: [kumiˈtɛ oˈlĩpiku dɨ puɾtuˈɡaɫ]; acronym: COP) is a non-profit organisation of public utility, which serves as the National Olympic Committee (NOC) for Portugal. It was founded on October 26, 1909, to ensure a timely, methodical and state-sponsored participation at the Games of the V Olympiad, in . Thus, it was the 13th nation to join the Olympic Movement.

As a NOC, its responsibilities include the setup and management of a delegation for the Olympic Games, and fundraising to support Olympic-related sports development programmes, by cooperation with public and private entities. A universe of 64 national sports federations is assembled under the COP's wing as members with voting power. This intimate relationship with the federations helps carrying their interests close to the government and official organisms, and ensures their active and decisive intervention on the committee's internal affairs.

The current president is José Manuel Constantino, who was elected in 2013. Former president Fernando Lima Bello is the current Portuguese delegate at the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Portugal had an official representative (António de Lencastre) at the IOC, since 9 June 1906, whose proposal came directly from King Carlos I himself, a known sports-lover. Nevertheless, the country lacked a proper organisation that would handle exclusively with the logistics, fundings and preparations required for an Olympic participation. In this way, the COP's establishment on 26 October 1909, filled this "institutional hole". However, not everyone regards this date as the official Olympism's date of institution in Portugal. Sources defend the date when António de Lencastre accepted Pierre de Coubertin's offer (9 June 1906) as the real accession date to the Olympic Movement, which would make this nation the 10th to do it, not the 13th, as is. An edition of the newspaper "Sports Ilustrado", from May 4, 1912, even claims the COP's foundation on April 30 of that year, that is, three years later than what is the currently recognised date. It is uncertain whether 1912 is the true foundation year, but it is believed that this date was not adopted later on by the COP, so that Portugal would not lose its place on the IOC founding members' list