Juan Antonio Samaranch, who has died aged 89, was the seventh president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and had more influence on the Olympic movement than any of his predecessors, with the exception of its founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. During his 21 years in the post, from 1980 to 2001, the Olympic Games became truly worldwide, in terms of both the number of countries sending competitors and, through television, the size of audiences.
He raised the profile of the Olympic movement to that of a quasi-state and developed the level of commercialism to make the organisation wealthy, but at the price, many argued, of losing its independence and leaving it vulnerable to corruption. He brought in new sports but did not ditch old ones, bringing the Games close to bursting point. Throughout his term, the shadow of drug abuse in sport grew while the Olympic movement always seemed a few paces behind in the fight. Its timidity with the eastern bloc, particularly East Germany, gave the impression of a hopeless cause and it was not until the judicial inquiry in Canada – after the sprinter Ben Johnson was banned at Seoul, South Korea, in 1988 – that the Olympic movement was seen to be no longer paying mere lip service towards the prevention of drug abuse through its testing programmes.
Samaranch, born in Barcelona, used his family's wealth from the textile industry to promote his sporting interests. In the Spain of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco, sport was under the control and influence of the state, and Samaranch found his route to sporting power through roller-hockey. International success for the Spanish team, with Samaranch as its manager, brought him recognition in the 1950s, and from there he went on to become a councillor for Catalonia, responsible for sport, and ultimately a member of the Cortes, Spain's ruling body.
On Franco's death in 1975, Samaranch's political career seemed to be over, but he was still the opportunist, and his friendship with King Juan Carlos brought him the crucial appointment, so far as his Olympic aspirations were concerned, as ambassador to Moscow in 1977.
He had become a member of the IOC in 1966 and immediately took the same route to the presidency as his predecessor, Lord Killanin. Samaranch was appointed chairman of the press commission, thus assuming a public profile, and then chief of protocol, which enabled him to get to know all the members of the exclusive club that controls the Olympic Games. By 1970 he was a member of the executive board.
His election as president, just before the Moscow Olympics in 1980, was not a foregone conclusion, but his three years as Soviet ambassador ensured that he was able to woo the votes of the eastern bloc. IOC members are supposed to be independent, but the eastern European countries worked together. The danger to Samaranch's election hopes came from Willi Daume, a long-serving IOC member and organiser of the Munich Games in 1972, who would almost certainly have received due reward for his contribution. But, with West Germany boycotting Moscow (in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan), Daume's hopes of becoming president were dashed and Samaranch took an overall majority on the first ballot against three candidates.
Immediately, he changed the role and style of the presidency. He moved into the five-star Palace Hotel in Lausanne, Switzerland, which remained his home for many years, and became effectively chairman and chief executive of the organisation. Under the old-style leadership of Killanin and before him Avery Brundage, the IOC had been run by a small staff in Lausanne, headed by Monique Berlioux. Samaranch virtually took control, tolerating an unhappy relationship with Berlioux which finally ended in 1985 when she was sacked. He devoted his life to the Olympic cause and, when he was not travelling, would spend his days on Olympic business in the headquarters at Château de Vidy, on the shores of Lake Léman.
Samaranch's diplomatic skills were soon tested when, in the year after his election, the IOC nominated Seoul to stage the Games of 1988, complete with the shadow of threats from North Korea. The north's communist regime soon demanded a share of the spoils and, setting Olympic rules and protocol aside, Samaranch conducted a dialogue with the North Koreans about sharing some of the events. At times its absurdity matched Gilbert and Sullivan, without the humour, but it ensured not only that North Korea refrained from a violent reaction but, with dialogue continuing, other members of the eastern bloc which did not have relations with Seoul were able to take part.
After the boycotts of the Games that had occurred in 1976 (an anti-apartheid protest), 1980 and 1984 (a response to the 1980 boycott), this was a significant success. Samaranch, in developing his expansion of the movement, realised that, with the Games so politically vulnerable, the IOC needed to raise its sights and form relationships with governments and heads of state. The way in which he played the part of quasi-head of state in his world tours may have looked pompous, but by meeting government leaders and being recognised by the United Nations, he had access to the right people when problems loomed. The manner in which he handled the Seoul crisis ensured that the Olympic Games were accepted not just as a sporting event, but as one with economic and political strength.
Samaranch realised that the TV values of the Games were undervalued and assigned his chief negotiator, Dick Pound, an IOC member in Canada, the task of increasing income dramatically. Worldwide, the sums raised now run into billions, with the host city taking two-thirds of the money. These sums would not have been achieved, however, had the IOC not accepted a radical change – splitting the competitions so that the summer and winter games, previously held in the same year, are separated by two years. Samaranch understood the need to have television and sponsors' contributions spread across the quadrennial. He devised that plan in 1981, but waited five years before he was sure that IOC members would accept it. It was implemented for the Winter Olympics of 1994.
He was, though, cautious about the IOC's reliance upon television income and used the development of a marketing company, ISL (International Sport and Leisure), headed by Horst Dassler, head of the sports goods manufacturer Adidas, to raise more millions through marketing the IOC emblem. Major multinational companies paid highly to use the Olympic rings on their products.
This new commercial drive came on the back of the financially successful 1984 Los Angeles Games. A large number of IOC members – those of the old school whose playing days were in the years of the amateurs – did not like much of what Samaranch was doing, but, while the Games appeared to be thriving, there was never any hint of anyone opposing him. Indeed, most of what he did could be termed successful – even building an Olympic museum on a prime site overlooking the lake in Lausanne. While many of his members believed it would be a white elephant, it turned out to be an award-winner, drawing considerable numbers, albeit at a price well beyond the original budget – but most of it was paid for by sponsors.
One of Samaranch's biggest triumphs came in 1992, when he stood in the centre of the Montjuïc stadium in the city of his birth and called upon the King of Spain to open the Games, an event that transformed Barcelona. It was really the moment to pass on the Olympic torch but, like so many, Samaranch found power hard to relinquish. While, on the one hand, he welcomed the growing number of cities wanting to stage the Games, he was aware that the method of choosing the appropriate candidate was in danger of being corrupted. The lavish hospitality, gifts and trips prompted him to ask one of his board members, Marc Hodler, to come up with some guidelines. Ironically, it was Hodler who in 1998 blew the whistle on such practices in Salt Lake City during Utah's successful bid to host the 2002 Winter Games, which led to the biggest scandal in the history of the IOC, with 10 members either resigning or being expelled for corruption.
Samaranch resisted calls, particularly from the US, for his resignation. At times, he looked a broken man, but his resolve to stay on was not so much a gesture of innocence as that of a man who knew that, had he left, the Olympic rings might have been stained blood-red by the infighting to be his successor. Ironically, it was the staging of the 2000 Games that dispersed the clouds of corruption. Sydney ran a particularly spectacular and well organised event, and enough of the gloss and the glory reflected on the IOC and its president. In the event, he retired in July 2001, succeeded by the Belgian Jacques Rogge. Samaranch was appointed honorary life president and continued to take an active interest in the IOC, particularly during Spain's bids for the Games of 2012 and 2016.
His wife, Maria Teresa Salisachs Rowe, known as Bibis, died in 2000. Samaranch is survived by a son, Juan Antonio Jr, now a member of the IOC; a daughter, Maria Teresa; and his partner, Luisa Sallent.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Torelló, sports administrator and diplomat, born 17 July 1920; died 21 April 2010
John Rodda died in 2009