The beginning of the centenary jubilee of our first participation in the Olympic Games (Paris 1924) recalls the name of François (Frantz) Étienne Reichel (1871-1932), a French gentleman of great importance in sports and world sports journalism. related to very important events in the history of Ecuadorian sports, something that has not been reviewed to date. When we quote Reichel, it is inevitable to associate him with the father of Ecuadorian sports, Manuel Seminario Sáenz de Tejada (1884-1966), a topic we will deal with in this column.

The anniversary of our first participation in the Olympic Games

Frantz Reichel was immersed in sports from childhood under the influence of his father, who was the treasurer of the French Union of Athletic Sports Societies (USFSA, French acronym) and the media representative of the sports congress held at the Sorbonne in 1884, which gave birth to the modern Olympic Games.

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Young Reichel soon proved to be an excellent athlete, especially in the hurdles. He competed for his country at the Games of the First Olympiad in 1896 and began to engage in journalism, writing about those Games for i Veilthe first sports newspaper in history, founded in 1892. At the II. Olympics in Paris in 1900. Reichel was part of the French national team rugby and won a gold medal. After retiring from active sports, he held important managerial positions. He was the general secretary of the USFSA, the founder of the French Boxing Federation and the International Hockey Federation, which he chaired until 1932. He was a member of the French Olympic Committee and the general secretary of the Organizing Committee of the 1924 Olympic Games.

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Manuel Seminario was born in our embassy in Paris, the son of Miguel Seminario y Marticorena, then vice consul, and a Guatemalan lady, Jesús Sáenz de Tejada. He studied in England, France and Germany and was involved in athletics, hockey on grass and football. He was the cousin of Enrique Dorn y Alsúa, the Ecuadorian Minister Plenipotentiary to France — the son of German Enrique Dorn and Maria Dolores Alsúa y Rocafuerta of Guayaquil. Dorn frequented aristocratic and wealthy circles and became a close friend of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who in 1921 made him a member of that organization. Studying in prestigious Parisian campuses and playing sports made Reichel and Seminario form a strong friendship that allowed, together with the influence of Dorn and Alsúa, the IOC to approve the participation of three Ecuadorian athletes in the Paris Olympics.

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At the end of 1923, Seminario decided to call on his friendship with Reichel to achieve orientation in order to establish a national entity that would take the leadership of Ecuadorian sports. On January 20, 1924, the French leader replied: “I am perfectly willing to give you all the indications you want for the sports organization of Ecuador, in the realization of which I feel satisfied to participate to the smallest extent of my ability.” . Many years later, Seminario recounted this important chapter in the history of national sports: “Frantz Reichel studied our case not only with deep knowledge, but also with a good will to serve us, which I must attribute, without any pretense, to the desire to be useful to my school colleague. “.

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In an extensive letter from the French leader, published in the newspaper of Guayaquil, the organization in France was explained: “A federation for every sport; all federations of each sport grouped within the National Sports Committee which is, more precisely, the French Olympic Committee”. And Reichel added: “In the beginning, each sport did not have its own association and it was necessary to create a doctrine and have more action, to gather different sports into an association. Thus, until July 1920, there was a Union of French Athletic Sports Federations in France, which included all sports: athletics, rugby, football, tennis, hockeyetc. (…) If by any chance you adopt this phase formula, it is necessary to provide in the statute that it is only one phase, in order to avoid the day when you decide to give each sport an alliance, more a sentimental struggle than a reasonable one because we had to fight it in France in order to dissolve the group which was nothing more than a chain at the time”.

With these and other tips that appear in Manuel Seminario’s biographical book, which we hope to publish soon, this leader — president of the Guayas Sports Federation — began to motivate different provinces to establish their own sports federations, which he did in Pichincha, Los Ríos, Chimborazo, Tungurahua and Azuay. Having fulfilled this purpose, the Seminary convened the 1st State Sports Assembly, which began on May 9. On the 15th of that month, in the hall of the National College of Vicente Rocafuerte, the Congress was inaugurated, which ten days later decided to create the National Sports Federation of Ecuador (FDNE) and elected Manuel Seminario Sáenz de Tejada as its first president. .

This federation assumed leadership over all sports, as Reichel advised with this warning in one of his letters to the Seminary: “When, as time passes, one or more sports acquire enough vitality to fly on their own wings, autonomous organizations should be established to control each of these sports, without losing contact with the provincial administrative body, and thus with the national entity that would have international ties”.

Frantz Reichel also played a decisive role in international networking. In 1924, the Sports Federation of Guayaquil (after Guayas) was the only multi-sport entity in the country, founded in 1922 by the inspired Seminary, which decided to manage its inclusion in international entities. It was Reichel who took over the patronage of the cause and with his help the Association achieved membership in FIFA and the International Tennis Federation in January 1925. When the FDNE was founded a few months later, Guayas transferred these members to this entity. International representation and sports power until 1968 was held by FDNE.

Reichel was not only a great leader to whom the national sport owes a lot, which we show for the first time. He devoted a large part of his life to journalism. He is said to have been the first European journalist to pilot an airplane, assisting Wilbur Wright in his distance record for single-passenger flights. Taking advantage of his status as press officer for the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924, together with his Belgian colleague Víctor Boin, he founded the International Association of Sports Journalists (AIPS) on July 2 of that year. Today, it has 166 affiliated journalist organizations and is approaching its centenary, which will coincide with the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad.

This column pays tribute to the memory of Frantz Reichel and Manuel Seminario, thanks to whom Ecuadorian sports participated in the Olympic Games in 1924, took over the modern sports organization and achieved the first international connections. (OR)