Madrid – The former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Belgian Jacques Rogge, died this Sunday at the age of 79, according to this body.
Rogge, who replaced Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch in 2001 at the helm of the Olympic movement, was the eighth chairman of the International Olympic Committee.
He remained in office until 2013, when he was succeeded by German Thomas Bach and went on to serve as honorary president of IOC.
An orthopedic surgeon by profession and specializing in sports medicine, Jacques Rogge was a “lifelong sports enthusiast and an accomplished athlete,” the IOC noted.
In his youth it practiced rugby and it got to play with the selection Belgian, although it was the candle the discipline in which it emphasized like sportsman of high level.
Finn class world champion, Rogge participated in this specialty at the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games in Mexico.
At the end of his career as an athlete, Jacques Rogge became chairman of the Belgian Olympic Committee and the Association of European Olympic Committees, before being elected president of the IOC to replace Samaranch in 2001 in Moscow.
After leaving the presidency of the International Olympic Committee in 2013, Jacques Rogge served as the United Nations Special Envoy for Youth, Refugees and Sport.
“He was a president who helped modernize and transform the IOC. He will be especially remembered for defending youth sport and for inaugurating the Youth Olympic Games. He was also a fierce defender of clean sport and fought tirelessly against the evils of doping, ”noted IOC President Thomas Bach.
As a sign of respect, the Olympic flag will fly at half-mast for five days at the Olympic House, the Olympic Museum and all IOC properties. A tribute to which the IOC invited all National Olympic Committees and International Federations to unite as a sign of “remembrance and respect.”
The IOC also reported that after a private family ceremony, a public memorial service will be held at the end of the year “in which members and friends of the Olympic Movement will be able to remember his life and his great contribution to the sport “. EFE