News
WOA Mourns the Loss of President Samaranch
23.04.2010 by President Richard Fosbury
The World Olympians Association mourns today the loss of a legend. His Excellency Juan Antonio Samaranch led the Olympic Movement for more than two decades and brought it into the 21st Century in an unprecedented era of success. His vision ensured the creation of the WOA to foster our continued fellowship of Olympians around the globe.
Not a one of us realized when His Excellency said, “I know that I am very near the end of my time” during the final presentation for Madrid 2016 in October 2009, how close in fact he was to the end of his life on earth.
So today we pause in respect for the appointed honorary president of the International Olympic Committee, who passed away Wednesday, April 21, in his native Barcelona, Spain, after being hospitalized on Sunday. Samaranch was 89.
Samaranch served from 1980 to 2001 – 21 years – as the IOC’s seventh president. During his tenure, he helped achieve financial security and stability for the Olympic Movement as he promoted television and sponsorship deals, and he paved the way for Olympians to gain funding and to become more professional.
He worked tirelessly to encourage all nations, even those at odds, to compete at the Olympic Games and brought more member countries into the Olympic Movement, creating many IOC officials from developing nations. He enhanced established programs such as Olympic Solidarity for financial aid, and he helped ensure the increased participation of women – both in sport in the Olympic Games to nearly 40 percent, and within the organizational structure of the IOC as new IOC members.
But for the WOA, we will remember him as the man who created our organization in the Olympic Spirit of mutual respect and global understanding following the Centennial Olympic Congress, the Congress of Unity, held in Paris in 1994. The WOA was officially established during a ceremony at the Olympic Museum on Nov. 21,1995.
For me, I will miss President Samaranch for his witty, robust leadership that transformed the Olympic Movement as I knew it from my days as an international athlete in the 1960s to the greatest global sporting event that it is today. When I first became involved in volunteering in Olympians’ organizations in 1998, he guided and encouraged me to work with athletes around the world to promote Olympism and peace. I am indebted to his advice and promise to do just that.
The former Spanish ambassador to the Soviet Union and Spanish team chef de mission for several Olympic Games, Samaranch died of apparent “cardio-respiratory failure,” according to hospital officials. Samaranch leaves behind IOC Member Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr., daughter Maria Teresa, and the entire Olympic family, including our World Olympians Association.