Interview: Ignasi Fàbregues Barceló - A Life Shaped by Currents from the Ebro River to the Olympics
Ignasi is passionate about ultra-endurance events: triathlon (Ironman), cycling, and ultra trail races. He still has one personal challenge pending, and that is completing the UltraEbre swim marathon. Ignasi grew up understanding sport not as spectacle, but as a way of life.
Over fifteen years later, that same understanding guides him as the CEO of the National Olympic Committee of Iraq, where he leads federations, athletes, and sporting institutions toward transformation and possibility.
He never set out to become a sports executive. He began as an athlete. One of the young competitors at a high-performance centre, the CTE Terres de l'Ebre in the region of Amposta, Catalonia. He would eventually become managing director of the center.
Those early years taught him resilience, discipline, and the quiet consistency required for a demanding career.
Today, those lessons remain the foundation of his leadership. Strategic decisions, even at the highest level.
The River That Started It All
His story cannot be separated from Amposta in Catalonia, Spain, nor from the Ebro River cutting across its landscape. He was working as a sports Director when the UltraEbre swim marathon was born. It was an idea that grew into a gathering, then into a tradition. He watched the event transform the region, stitching together athletes, spectators, families, and local businesses in a shared celebration of nature and endurance.
For him, UltraEbre has always been more than a marathon swimming race. It is a reminder that a community becomes stronger when people move together, toward something meaningful. It brings visibility, pride, and tourism to the area he still considers home. And although he has yet to swim its full distance, the challenge remains present.
Leadership Beyond Medals
In Iraq, Ignasi has witnessed how sport can rebuild communities, confidence, and hope. Working alongside athletes and federations, he has seen cooperation turn into progress, and progress into pride. What moves him most is not victory itself, but the collective effort behind it and the willingness to believe in something larger than oneself. He knows leadership is not measured solely by podiums or results. Success, to him, is structural change.
Education as an Anchor
Even during his athletic years, Ignasi never viewed sport as a single, all-consuming path. He believes deeply in the union of physical and intellectual development. Athletes who study, reflect, and question become more adaptable, more resilient, and more capable of building a life beyond competition.
He often speaks of gratitude for his family and parents that encouraged him to pursue academics, and for the guidance that kept him from short-term decisions with long-term consequences. Education, he believes, is not a backup plan but the foundation on which sporting dreams, and lives, are built.
A Vision for the Future of Olympism
In Amposta, together with my team, we were able to transform the city into a benchmark for sports and sports tourism through strategic planning, efficient management, and the optimization of facilities that became a national model.
Now, in Iraq, I apply those same principles on a much larger scale, adapting them to more complex contexts and promoting collaboration among multiple stakeholders. The goal remains the same: to strengthen the Olympic movement and create a positive impact for both athletes and communities, demonstrating that slight changes in processes can lead to significant transformations in society.
My vision is long-term, and I strive to ensure that medals are not the only indicators of success. Achieving structural and procedural changes that enable sustainable development in the country, while promoting grassroots sport, gender equality and equal opportunities, and professionalization in sports management, would be a true accomplishment.
What Endurance Really Means
For me, the vision of the Olympic movement can be summed up in one phrase: Inspire through sport to build fairer societies. I hope that, in the next decade, young athletes see Olympism not only as an opportunity to compete, but also as a path for personal growth, collaboration, and universal values that will accompany them throughout their lives.
It is especially necessary in a society that is becoming increasingly sedentary, where sport can promote healthy habits, inclusion, and well-being. Sport should be used as a global tool for development, peace, and inclusion. It is true that the focus on these objectives is becoming clearer, and society is increasingly embracing them.
Sport is a true companion for life: it accompanies us through different stages, in different ways, but it is always there, pushing us to be better. I believe in its transformative power.
