Player Seeks All-Indian Olympics Basketball Team

SANTA CRUZ — Stephan Ledesma, part Mission Indian, part Mexican, part Irish, doesn’t play nice basketball. He slams the ball to the ground, drives to the basket aggressively, hurtles passes to teammates.

He doesn’t play just for fun. He plays to make a dream come true.

Ledesma wants to form a Native American Nation basketball team to compete as a sovereign country in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

“You give us one year to prepare professionally, we would be better than 75% of the teams in the United States and very competitive internationally,” he said. “We’d be awfully good.”

The International Olympic Committee recognizes 200 National Olympic Committees, independent territories, commonwealths, protectorates and geographical areas, including Guam and Puerto Rico.

But past efforts by American Indians and other indigenous groups around the world to form separate Olympic teams have failed. The IOC’s guidelines say that athletes must compete for the country where they live. And American Indians are U.S. citizens.

“It’s not an absurd idea,” said Anita DeFrantz, a member of the IOC’s executive board. “Obviously, some people feel strongly about this and want to do it. But the likelihood of being successful is slim to none.”

The most recent serious bid was in 1991 when the Catalan region of Spain tried to get a separate team. But that request was delayed past the 1992 games and denied in 1997.

U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Mike Moran said an American Indian Olympic Committee didn’t sound feasible.

“The International Olympic Committee would have to create and recognize another national Olympic committee within the United States,” he said. “We would be talking about the IOC taking an extraordinary step.”

At the Native American Sports Council in Colorado Springs, Colo., associate director Mo Smith said the athletes his group represents have mutual pride in their two nations.

“I think there’s a lot of indigenous [people] and Native Americans who have competed in the Olympics who have been proud to represent their tribal community and the country they live in,” he said.

Smith, who competed in three Olympic track and field trials and is the only Native American to break a four-minute mile, said he admires the spirit behind Ledesma’s dream.

“I think it would be nice if indigenous people could compete under one flag in the Olympics, but we’re just not near that point yet,” he said.

Meanwhile, Smith said, the council is working to get more Native American athletes on national teams. Their inspiration: Jim Thorpe, who in 1912 became the only athlete ever to win the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon, and Billy Mills, who won the 10,000-meter race at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

Mills’ wife, Patricia, said the sovereign-nation team proposal has sought the Millses’ support before.

“Prior to every Olympic Games, there’s always renewed interest for native groups and activists to get their own teams together to represent the native nations,” she said.

Ledesma has heard the doubters. But he said he’s pressing forward.

He has petitioned the IOC, and he has received a tentative go-ahead from USA Basketball to have an all-native team play in tournaments against European Olympic teams.