BARCELONA, Spain — Juan Antonio Samaranch, a reserved but shrewd dealmaker whose 21-year term as president of the International Olympic Committee was marked by the unprecedented growth of the games, died Wednesday at a hospital. He was 89.
Samaranch, a courtly former diplomat who served as the Spanish ambassador in Moscow, led the IOC from 1980 to 2001. He was considered one of the defining presidents for building the IOC into a powerful global organization and establishing the Olympics as a world force.
“If there is a good way to die, I guess it was this way,” Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. said. “He had a full life and career.”
IOC president Jacques Rogge will be among the dignitaries attending a special ceremony this morning before the funeral at Barcelona’s cathedral later in the day.
“I cannot find the words to express the distress of the Olympic family,” Rogge said in a statement. “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.”
The Samaranch era was perhaps the most eventful in IOC history, spanning political boycotts, the end of amateurism and the advent of professionalism, the explosion of commercialization, a boom in growth and popularity of the games, the scourge of doping, and the Salt Lake corruption scandal.
Samaranch had been bothered by health problems ever since stepping down nine years ago. He was hospitalized for 11 days in Switzerland with “extreme fatigue” in 2001 after returning from the IOC session in Moscow, where Rogge was elected as his successor.
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.”
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.
In addition to his 50-year-old son, Samaranch is survived by a daughter, Maria Teresa. Both of his children and his partner, Luisa Sallent, were by his side when he passed.
