Global General
Former IOC president Samaranch dies aged 89
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-21 20:01
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 In this Thursday, July 25, 2002 file photo International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, right, claps as former Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch waves during a homage given to the latter in Barcelona, on the 10th anniversary of the Olympic games in this city in northeastern Spain. Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch died Wednesday April 21, 2010. He was 89. The Quiron Hospital in Barcelona says Samaranch died after being admitted with heart problems. [Photo/Agencies] |
In Moscow in 1980, as a little-known Spanish diplomat, Samaranch was elected the seventh president of the IOC, taking the most powerful job in global sports.
Twenty-one years later, as a well-known world figure, Samaranch returned to Moscow to finish his term - basking in the unprecedented popularity and riches of the games but still bearing the scars of the scandal that led to the ouster of 10 IOC members for receiving improper benefits from the 2002 Salt Lake bid committee.
While his closest friends said Samaranch was extremely emotional and sentimental, outwardly he remained cool and philosophical in his final days in office.
"I'm feeling OK," he said. "Life is life. There is a beginning and an end. This is the end of my presidency. I've known for a long time that this day was coming."
Even at the end of his Olympic reign in 2001, Samaranch worked hard to achieve three electoral victories as part of his final legacy: the awarding of the 2008 Olympics to Beijing, the election of Rogge as the new president, and the appointment of his son, Juan Antonio Jr., as an IOC member.
Samaranch retired as the second-longest serving president in the history of the IOC. Only Pierre de Coubertin, the French baron who founded the modern Olympics, was in office longer, serving for 29 years (1896-1925). American Avery Brundage served for 20 years (1952-72).
Samaranch was the last IOC leader to stay in office for so long. Under new rules, the maximum term for the president is 12 years (one eight-year mandate, plus the possibility of an additional four-year term). Rogge was reelected unopposed to a second term in Copenhagen on October 9, 2009, extending his period in office until 2013.
"After de Coubertin, there is no question that Samaranch stands head and shoulders above the other presidents in terms of his impact, not only on the Olympic Games but the place of the Olympic movement in the world," Olympic historian John MacAloon said.
Longtime Canadian IOC member Dick Pound, who finished third in the voting to Rogge, said Samaranch was one of three "great or defining presidents."
"De Coubertin to get it going, Brundage to hold it together through a very difficult period, and Samaranch to bring it from the kitchen table to the world stage," Pound said.
Samaranch spoke of the dramatic changes himself.
"You have to compare what is the Olympics today with what was the Olympics 20 years ago - that is my legacy," he said before his retirement. "It is much more important. Also, all our sources of finances are coming from private sources, not a single dollar from the government. That means we can assure our independence and autonomy.
"And the most important thing - it is easy to say but not to get - is the unity with the national Olympic committees and mainly with the international federations."
When Samaranch came to power in 1980, the IOC was virtually bankrupt and the Olympics were battered by boycotts, terrorism and financial troubles.
When he left, the IOC's coffers were bulging from billions of dollars in commercial revenues, the boycott era was over, and the games were firmly established as the world's favorite sports festival.
"He took a very badly fragmented, disorganized and impecunious organization and built it into a universal, united and financially and politically independent organization that has credibility, not only in the world of sport, but also in political circles," Pound said. "That's an enormous achievement to accomplish in 20 years."
