Bernat Picornell i Richier (Marseille, 1883 - Barcelona, 1970) was a swimmer and sports leader who introduced swimming in Catalonia.
Bernat Picornell was born in Marseille in 1883. As a young man he had participated in swimming championships in his hometown. He moved to Barcelona in 1905, where he continued his interest in the world of sport, working with Manuel Solé, owner of the Solé Gymnasium, and founded Club Natació Barcelona in 1907, the first swimming club in Catalonia and Spain. Oriental Baths of the Barceloneta and later in the Baths of Sant Sebastià.
He wrote the first chronicles of the swimming of all Spain in the columns of the Sports World. He was a person well connected with the great world personalities of swimming and of the sport in general like Baron de Coubertain - creator of the modern Olympic Games - of whom he was personal friend and with whom he shared his ideas on amateur sport. He was many years president of the club, as well as of the Spanish Federation of Swimming and of the Bureau of the Federation Internationale of Amateur Natation.
He was a very active sports leader, organized the first Nadal Swimming Cup in the port of Barcelona, as well as the first water polo matches in Catalonia. He died in Barcelona in 1970 shortly after finishing the European Swimming Championships he got for the city.
In 1993 he joined the International Swimming Hall of Fame's honor roll. In its honor, it takes its name the main nautical installation of the city, the Swimming pools Bernat Picornell, that has hosted numerous national and international championships, among which are counted the Swimming Championships of 1970, the Olympic Games of Barcelona 1992, the 2003 World Swimming Championships and the 2013 World Swimming Championships.
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