Texas Nationalists Want Separate Olympics Team, Make Bull Riding a Sport

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A leading Texan nationalist has called for the Lone Star State to field its own Olympic team and suggested Texas could one day host the Olympics as a fully independent nation, with Bull Riding included in the events.

Daniel Miller, president of the secessionist Texas Nationalist Movement, made the comments in an interview with Newsweek.

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are underway in Paris, France, with Team USA topping the medal table as of 7:15 a.m. ET on Friday with 30 golds and a total of 103 medals altogether, ahead of second-placed China with 30 golds and 74 medals altogether. Los Angeles is due to host the next Olympic Games in 2028, the third time the summer event will be held in the state of California.

Thus far the United States has hosted the summer Olympics four times, starting with the 1904 games which took place in St. Louis, Missouri. Los Angeles hosted the competition in both 1932 and 1984 followed by Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996. Texas is yet to host the competition but speaking to Newsweek Miller, who is campaigning for the Lone Star State to leave the Union and become an independent country, said he expects this to change.

A stock photo shows bull riding in the El Paso County Colosseum on February 16, 2019. A leading Texan nationalist has called for Texas to have its own Olympic team and suggested bull riding could... A stock photo shows bull riding in the El Paso County Colosseum on February 16, 2019. A leading Texan nationalist has called for Texas to have its own Olympic team and suggested bull riding could one day be an Olympic sport. More PAUL RATJE/AFP/GETTY Referring to Texan independence as Texit, an adaptation of the term Brexit, which was used to describe Britain's departure from the European Union, Miller said: "Texas will one day host the Olympics. We'll do so as a self-governing independent nation. However, we'd like to see Texas field its own Olympic team even before Texit."

The nationalist campaigner jokingly added: "Pretty sure we're holding out until Bull Riding becomes an Olympic sport."

According to an analysis by San Antonio-based network KSAT, Texan athletes had won 30 medals in the Paris games as of August 7, which would put the state in the top 10 countries by medals won if had been competing as a nation. Among the Texan athletes taking part is Houston-raised gymnast Simone Biles, who has won three gold medals and one silver in Paris.

KSAT reported that Texan athletes had won nearly a third of the 86 medals Team USA had won as of August 6.

According to the International Olympic Committee athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team were due to take part in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Some of the Olympic teams represent territories that are not fully independent countries, including Hong Kong, which is a special administrative territory of China, and the British overseas territory of Bermuda.

Over the past few months Texan nationalists have secured a number of major victories, with the Republican Party of Texas in May electing supporters of an independence referendum for the state as its new chair and vice chair.

The following month the Texas GOP included an independence referendum call as part of its 2024 Legislative Priorities and Platform, describing laying the groundwork for such a vote as a "legislative priority" for the party.

Miller described the current U.S. constitutional settlement as "a recipe for disaster" during an edition of his Texas News podcast that was released on Wednesday.

Describing contemporary America he said: "You see, when you have such a deep-seated sickness, this pressure internally, these competing world views, these deep-seated issues, and you ignore them, it is a recipe for disaster.

"One of two things happens. It either blows up or it invites autocratic reign from some tyrannical government to keep its hand on those competing realities. That's the danger in thinking one day everybody's going to wake up and we're going to link pinkies and sing Kumbaya. It's just not the reality. The reality is Texans are suffering."

Speaking to Newsweek earlier this year Joshua Blank, a research director at the University of Texas at Austin's Texas Politics Project, argued Texan independence would be unlikely to take place peacefully.

He said: "I think history has made clear that there is no plausible scenario in which Texas could peacefully extract itself from the United States, even were that the will of its populous—which there is no indication of to my knowledge."

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