Former IOC president Samaranch dead at 89

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-22 09:18

Former IOC president Samaranch dead at 89

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]

"It's certainly the end of an era for the IOC," Pound told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday.

"This is somebody who basically brought the organisation from a late 19th-century configuration into the 21st century, and to do that in the space of just a couple of decades was quite a remarkable performance."

Samaranch stepped down in July 2001, 21 years after he had been elected as the IOC's seventh president, and was made life president when he handed power to Rogge.

"I am personally deeply saddened by the death of the man who built up the Olympic Games of the modern era, a man who inspired me, and whose knowledge of sport was truly exceptional," Belgian Rogge said in a statement.

EMOTIONAL APPEAL

At last October's vote in Copenhagen on the host for the 2016 Games, Samaranch made an emotional appeal to IOC members to grant him a last favour and choose Madrid but they picked Rio de Janeiro instead.

"I know that I am very near the end of my time," Samaranch said during Madrid's final presentation.

Born on July 17 1920, he led the Spanish team to the world rollerskating title before pursuing a career in sports politics in dictator Francisco Franco's fascist Spain and winning a place on the IOC in 1966.

After Franco's death, he was appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union and the contacts he made there helped him succeed Lord Killanin as IOC president in 1980.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed sadness at Samaranch's passing. He had been a "good friend of Russia" and his death was "a huge, unrecoverable loss for the Olympic family", Putin said.

Samaranch's body will lie at rest in the chapel at the Catalan regional government palace for members of the public to pay their respects between 1000 and 1500 GMT on Thursday.