Duncan Mackay
Juan Antonio Samaranch used to dream of winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
He pointed proudly to having eliminated the hypocrisy of “shamateurism”, put the games on a firm financial footing and, through diplomacy and globe- trotting, ended the political boycotts of the Olympics. That dream is now in ruins.
The Olympic movement offered an opportunity to rebuild a political career cut down in its prime. Now he finds himself hacked down again.
Samaranch, now aged 78, deserted from the army of the Spanish Republic during the civil war and hid in Barcelona until General Francisco Franco won. He spent the next 35 years climbing the ladder of fascist politics, becoming head of Franco’s rubber-stamp Catalan “Parliament” and ambassador to Moscow.
It was 10 years after the Allies discovered Auschwitz that he volunteered for the elite Falange (the former Spanish fascist party) and gave the fascist salute. This he did until Franco died in 1975, long after more thoughtful Franquistas had begun to engage in clandestine negotiations to restore democracy. When democracy returned to Spain, Samaranch departed into exile.
When the British book The Lords of the Rings was published in 1992, detailing Samaranch’s Francoist roots, he claimed he was “proud” of his past, yet still sued the authors.
It was in 1980 that Samaranch was elevated to the IOC’s top job and took the opportunity to reinvent himself as the most powerful man in world sport. His 19 years as president have seen him turn the Olympic movement into a massive global corporation. The five- rings symbol is instantly recognised.
In 1981 he linked up with Horst Dassler, the heir to the Adidas fortune, to form an international marketing strategy. They decided to sell the Olympics on an international scale. This has led to companies spending millions to attach their name to the games and frenzied bidding by cities to host them.
Samaranch likes to think of himself as a monarch. He insists on being called “Excellency”, lives in a palatial suite in the Palace Hotel in Geneva and takes a helicopter for his daily 55km ride into work.
Samaranch should have been collecting his pension a long while back. But four years ago he engineered a vote of the IOC that raised the retirement age from 75 to 80. At the time, he thought it would ensure he would remain Lord of the Rings into the next millennium.
But as the current scandal continues to unfold, his grip on power is loosened a little each day. Although he refused last weekend to contemplate stepping down, how he must now wish he had retired gracefully when the going was good.