Gozo has made history by winning two medals at an international sports competition in which it is competing as Gozo, rather than as part of Malta.

The sister island is competing as Gozo for the first time in history, with a team of all-Gozitan athletes bearing the Gozo flag - featuring the iconic three hills - rather than the red and white Maltese flag.

Marlon Attard during the competition on Tuesday. Photo: Joseph Mercieca.

Marlon Attard, 23, swept a gold medal on Tuesday, and the day before, Lara Calleja, 25, swept a silver one. Both are competing in the shooting discipline.

Attard and Calleja are among a contingent of 40 Gozitan athletes, their coaches and trainers. Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri joined them on Monday.

Lara Calleja standing proudly under the Gozo flag after winning a silver medal. Photo: Facebook/Clint Camilleri.

First held in 1985, the International Island Games is a biennial multi-sport competition featuring teams from European islands and other small territories, most of which are not independent states, but form part of larger states or countries.

This year's games are being held in Guernsey, a small island nation tucked just above the northern French coast in the English Channel.

24 competing islands

Among the 24 competing islands are Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, the Isle of Man, Menorca and the Falkland Islands. They are competing for medals in 14 disciplines - archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, bowling, cycling, football, golf, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis and triathlon.

The 40 athletes are going by the name 'Team Gozo'. Photo: Facebook/Clint Camilleri.

Gozo has four athletes competing in athletics, six in cycling, four in shooting, four in swimming, one in table tennis, one in triathlon and 20 in football.

This is the first time that Gozo (or Malta) are participating in the International Island Games.

An independent Gozo?

Gozo rarely features as its own representative in sports and politics and is almost always considered a region of Malta. But ideas about Gozo's independence or autonomy have been thrown around for decades, although they never gathered enough steam to develop into a movement that leads to a change in Gozo's status.

Up until 1973, Gozo had an elected regional authority - called the Gozo Civic Council - that even had the power to impose taxes and allowed Gozitans to have a direct say in the running of their island.

Gozo has not had any self-governing status since, and the closest it got to have some form of say in its own affairs was in 1987 when the government set up a Gozo Ministry for the first time.

Some believe Gozo should have some form of political and economic autonomy to ensure Gozitans get to decide over the future of their own island.

However, others say its territory is too small, its resources too weak, and its GDP too meagre to create a functioning, flourishing modern economy with all the infrastructure that it entails.

They argue that, even if it could be done, it would ruin the very character that makes Gozo so appealing as a quiet region for people who are looking for a getaway.

Most recently, it was Minister Anton Refalo - then Gozo Minister - who came closest to rekindling the autonomy flame.

In 2017, he called on the government and the opposition to come together to give Gozo a "special status" - one that would give it fiscal powers and the ability to impose taxes.

He had said that there could never be devolution of legislative powers if laws directly relevant to Gozo were not passed by a Gozo Council or the Gozo region, even if ultimately they would have to be rubber-stamped by Parliament in Malta.

Even though autonomy for Gozo seems unfeasible, one of the island's competitors in the International Island Games has done it successfully.

With a population of 50,000 people, the Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within Denmark.

The Faroese elect a 33-seat parliament, have their own government and have autonomy over most internal affairs, while Denmark is responsible for justice, defence and foreign affairs.