Óscar García

Biographical information

RolesAdministrator
SexMale
Full nameÓscar N.•García
Used nameÓscar•García
Died1919
NOC Chile

Biography

Oscar García was a college gymnastics teacher in Santiago and served as sports editor of the daily newspaper La Mañana. He travelled to Europe in 1910 to attend a physical education congress in Brussels and study European sports. García never attended the meeting, but rather presented himself to de Coubertin as the President of the Chilean National Sports Federation (NSF), which he was not. But he managed to get appointed to the IOC in February 1911 and de Coubertin asked him to form a Chilean Olympic Committee.

On his return to Chile, Garcia was engaged in a power struggle with the NSF. In 1912 the NSF announced that they would send a team to Stockholm for the Olympics, and would form a National Olympic Committee. But García protested, stating that as the IOC Member to Chile, only he was authorized to form an NOC. The NSF and García both nominated Chilean athletes and the Stockholm Organizing Committee had to choose which to accept, eventually allowing all the Chilean athletes to compete. García became very unpopular in Chile and was reprimanded by the government for an article he wrote in La Mañana, which was critical of the NSF. The NSF wrote to the government and the Stockholm Organizing Committee, asking that he be removed from the IOC, but he remained a member until his death in 1919.

Organization roles

Role Organization Tenure NOC As
Member International Olympic Committee 1911—1914 CHI Óscar García