Former IOC chief Samaranch dies 22/04/2010 |
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Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch has died aged 89.
Samaranch was president of the IOC from 1980 until 2001 and is credited with bringing professional sport into the Olympics.
IOC president Jacques Rogge, who succeeded Samaranch, said: "I cannot find the words to express the distress of the Olympic Family."
Samaranch died in hospital in his home town of Barcelona two days after being admitted with heart problems.
Rogge added: "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.
"Thanks to his extraordinary vision and talent, Samaranch was the architect of a strong and unified Olympic Movement.
"I can only pay tribute to his tremendous achievements and legacy, and praise his genuine devotion to the Olympic Movement and its values. We have lost a great man, a mentor and a friend who dedicated his long and fulfilled life to Olympism."
London 2012 chairman Lord Coe, who had been close to Samaranch for three decades, described him as an “inspiration”.
"I have lost a friend, one that moulded my path through sport from my early 20s, and the world has lost an inspirational man,” he said.
"A man that challenged us all to fight for sport, its primacy and its autonomy, a fight he led fearlessly from the front, creating an extraordinary sporting movement that reaches millions of people around the world.
"He was quite simply the most intuitive leader I have ever met."
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