The American head coach of Scottish Gymnastics believes Scotland should bid for independence within the Olympic movement even if the Scottish National Party fails to win the referendum in two years' time, writes Kevin Ferrie.
After decades of globe-trotting Jim Holt arrived in Scotland last year to what he compared in some ways to the third world sporting nations where he had taken gymnasts to previously unimagined heights.
He sees pros and cons to Scottish Gymnastics having to work within the British Gymnastics set-up and stresses that the view is his own, not necessarily that of the governing body, but admits to envy of football and rugby which are able to operate independently of any British organisaton.
Holt points out that a solution to that exists within Olympic sport and that, by following the example of other nations that are not sovereign territories but see themselves as identifiable countries, some Scottish sports bodies could create a similar situation for themselves.
"It's open to debate but, from my personal point of view – and I'm not speaking for Scottish Gymnastics – sovereignty is always preferable," he said of whether Scotland would be better going it alone in competitive terms.
"If I were asked by the sports minister, 'how would you approach a long-term strategic plan', I would want a serious discussion, regardless of what happens in 2014 but my informed outside point of view is that there will be more devolution as some kind of compromise and for me the ideal and the vision I would have for Scottish sport, is like Puerto Rico which is a protectorate of the United States and not a sovereign country or Guam; they have their own Olympic committees.
"If Scotland had an Olympic Committee independent of Great Britain we would get a ton of money from the IOC as a developing country. If Scotland were sovereign with respect to international sport we could have the best of both."
At a crucial time for the Scottish Gymnastics Association – it is engaged in a major dispute with sportscotland over its future – Holt also dismissed fears that Scots would no longer have access to top flight training facilities if they withdrew from the United Kingdom either by becoming an independent country or simply by setting up their own Olympic Committee.
"I would guess that at least half of all the male Olympic swimmers are training or have trained in universities in the United States," he pointed out. "You've got the system set up. Why wouldn't you use it. Soccer's the model. Arsenal one time put a team on the field that didn't have an Englishman in it. International sport is global."
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