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National Olympic Committee · Spain

COE — Comité Olímpico Español

Spain's National Olympic Committee, a non-profit association of public utility defined by article 75 of Ley 39/2022 del Deporte; it co-runs the ADO scholarship programme with the CSD and RTVE, renewed in June 2025 through Los Angeles 2028.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
Founded23 November 1912, Madrid, on the account the committee itself treats as its founding act — see section 3
Earlier bodyA Spanish committee for the Olympic Games formed in 1905; first formal registration under Spanish association law in 1926
IOC recognitionThis page could not establish a recognition date and states none
HeadquartersCalle Arequipa 13, Gran Vía de Hortaleza, 28043 Madrid
PresidentAlejandro Blanco Bravo, in office since 2005, re-elected 28 May 2025
Secretary generalMaría Victoria Cabezas Álvarez de Estrada, re-elected 28 May 2025
Statutory basisLey 39/2022 del Deporte, arts. 75 and 77
State subsidy 20263,500,000 euros under Real Decreto 637/2026, of 101,275,100 euros distributed in total

What is the Comité Olímpico Español?

The Comité Olímpico Español, COE, is Spain's National Olympic Committee and the only body in this group that belongs to the European Olympic Committees rather than to Panam Sports. It is based on Calle Arequipa in the Gran Vía de Hortaleza in Madrid.[6]

Its legal form is set by statute. Article 75 of Ley 39/2022, the Ley del Deporte, establishes that the COE is a non-profit association with legal personality whose object is the development of the Olympic movement, declares it of public utility, and provides that it holds the exclusive representation of Spanish Olympic sport before the International Olympic Committee. The same article requires the Spanish Olympic sports federations to be members of it.[2] [1]

Article 77 of the same law deals separately with the protection of the committee's representative elements — its symbols, emblems and denominations — which is the domestic counterpart of the Olympic Charter's requirement that each NOC be responsible in its country for the rules on Olympic properties.[1] [12]

What does it do?

Article 75 charges the COE with organising the participation of Spanish athletes in the Olympic Games and in the international competitions attached to them, and with collaborating in athlete preparation.[2] Under Rule 27 of the Olympic Charter it also holds "the exclusive authority to select and designate the interested hosts which may apply to organise Olympic Games in their respective countries", and must "preserve their autonomy and resist all pressures of any kind".[12]

The host-designation power is not theoretical in Spain. On 21 June 2022 the COE confirmed the withdrawal of a Pyrenees-Barcelona candidature for the 2030 Winter Olympic Games, after the governments of Aragón and Catalonia failed to agree on the distribution of events; president Alejandro Blanco stated that the committee had informed the IOC it still intended to present a winter project in future.[11]

As at September 2026 this page found no confirmed Spanish Olympic candidature of any kind — winter or summer — and states none; the 2022 withdrawal is the most recent documented position retrieved on hosting and bidding.[11] The committee's selection role feeds the ordinary Olympic qualification chain, in which quota places are won by federations and entered by the NOC.[12]

When was it founded and when was it recognised by the IOC?

The founding date is genuinely disputed and this page does not settle it. Olympedia records that a Spanish committee for the Olympic Games was established in 1905 by the Marqués de Cabriñana del Monte, that the COE treats the 1912 reorganisation by the Marqués de Villamejor as its founding act, and that a new COE created in Barcelona in 1926 was the first to be formally registered under Spanish association law.[8] Olympedia's country record separately gives 1905 as the founding year.[9]

A secondary account dates the founding to 23 November 1912 in Madrid, records a reorganisation on 11 January 1924, a registration in Barcelona on 2 October 1926, a reconstitution during the Civil War in 1937-38, and successive headquarters in Madrid and Barcelona before the current Madrid building opened on 4 October 1995.[10] These are renames and reconstitutions of a line of bodies rather than one continuous incorporation.

This page could not establish a date of IOC recognition for the COE from any source retrieved and states none. Olympedia records only that Spain has competed continuously since 1920, with 1936 missed.[9] [8]

How is it funded and governed?

Governance is by assembly. Alejandro Blanco was re-elected president on 28 May 2025 in Madrid with 157 votes in favour and eight abstentions from 165 assembly members, for a term to 2029; he has held the office since 2005, and María Victoria Cabezas was re-elected secretary general on the same day.[7] [6]

Direct state funding is granted annually by decree. Real Decreto 637/2026 of 29 July 2026 distributes 101,275,100 euros in direct subsidies to the Spanish sports federations, the COE and the Spanish Paralympic Committee, of which 3,500,000 euros goes to the COE and 1,500,000 euros to the Paralympic committee; the decree rests on article 22.2.c) of Ley 38/2003, which permits direct grants where reasons of public interest exist.[3] [4]

The most citable funding instrument, though, is the ADO programme — a tripartite scheme between the COE, the Consejo Superior de Deportes and RTVE created in 1988 for the Barcelona 1992 Games, paying scholarships and technical and medical support to Olympic athletes. It still operates under that name: the three parties renewed the ADO agreement on 24 June 2025 through Los Ángeles 2028, with the CSD stating that it committed close to 8 million euros in 2025 to the CSD Team España-ADO scholarship system and that the renewal guarantees a full scholarship in the year after childbirth and 50 per cent in the second year.[5] That maternity provision is relevant to athlete pay questions.

Which Games does it enter, and what does it organise?

The COE enters Spain in the Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games, the European Games run by the EOC, the Mediterranean Games and the Youth Olympic Games; Spanish university teams enter the World University Games through FISU's national member rather than through the NOC.[2] [7] The committee's stated priorities for the current mandate were Milano Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028.[7]

Spain has hosted the Olympic Games once, at Barcelona in 1992, the edition for which the ADO programme was created.[5] This page could not retrieve a primary IOC record of the Barcelona award and carries the 1992 hosting on the ADO programme's own account of its origin.

The committee does not own a Games of its own. It designates Spanish candidatures, as it did for the withdrawn 2030 winter bid, and enters delegations to Games owned by others — the IOC, the EOC and the International Committee of Mediterranean Games.[11] [12]

Which federations are its members?

Article 75 of Ley 39/2022 requires the Spanish Olympic sports federations to be members of the COE.[2] Rule 28 of the Olympic Charter states the same requirement from the Olympic side and provides that "the voting majority of an NOC and of its executive body shall consist of the votes cast by the national federations".[12] The COE also admits non-Olympic federations, which it lists separately from the Olympic ones.[10]

This page could not retrieve the COE's own federation lists, whose pages did not return readable content, and does not state a member count. For scale, the 2026 subsidy decree distributes funds to 64 Spanish sports federations alongside the two committees — a state-funding list, not a membership list, and the two are not the same set.[4] [3] The assembly that re-elected the president in 2025 had 165 voting members, which includes athlete representatives as well as federations.[7]

No Spanish national federation has its own page on this site; they are named in plain text — the Real Federación Española de Atletismo in athletics, the Real Federación Española de Natación in swimming, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol in football, and the Real Federación Española de Judo in judo. Professional competitions such as LaLiga and Liga F sit outside the Olympic entry chain.[12]

References

  1. BOE — Ley 39/2022, de 30 de diciembre, del Deporte (Título IV, arts. 75 and 77). Accessed September 2026.
  2. Iberley — Artículo 75 de la Ley del Deporte: naturaleza y funciones del Comité Olímpico Español. Accessed September 2026.
  3. BOE — Real Decreto 637/2026, de 29 de julio, subvenciones a federaciones, COE y CPE para 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  4. Iustel — Subvenciones a las federaciones deportivas españolas, al Comité Olímpico Español y al Comité Paralímpico Español para el año 2026. Accessed September 2026.
  5. ADO — CSD, COE y RTVE reafirman su compromiso con el deporte olímpico a través de la renovación del convenio ADO hasta Los Ángeles 2028, 24 June 2025. Accessed September 2026.
  6. ANOC — NOC Directory: Comité Olímpico Español. Accessed September 2026.
  7. Infobae — Alejandro Blanco, reelegido presidente del Comité Olímpico Español hasta 2029, 28 May 2025. Accessed September 2026.
  8. Olympedia — Comité Olímpico Español (organisation record). Accessed September 2026.
  9. Olympedia — Spain (ESP). Accessed September 2026.
  10. Wikipedia (es) — Comité Olímpico Español (secondary; used only alongside other sources). Accessed September 2026.
  11. El Español — El COE confirma la retirada de la candidatura de España a los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno 2030, 21 June 2022. Accessed September 2026.
  12. International Olympic Committee — Olympic Charter, Rules 27 and 28 (in force as from 30 January 2025, PDF). Accessed September 2026.