Retirement Without Golf

Juan Antonio Samaranch: In Memoriam

Juan Antonio Samaranch was a fun fascist.

    As Newsweek's chief correspondent for the 1984 summer and winter Olympics, I interviewed Samaranch in Sarajevo just before the winter games opened in that historic and doomed Bosnian city. I was warned that his understanding of spoken English was less than perfect, but the veteran Spanish diplomat and mainstay of the old Franco regime seemed to have no trouble handling the questions. He was knowledgeable, helpful and likeable, in a fatherly way. He would have made a good pope.   

     Samaranch's conversion of the International Olympic Committee from a financially strapped, near-moribund, boycott-plagued entity to a profitably corporate-linked giant was evident even in 1984, just four years after Samaranch took over the presidency. Following the lead of L.A.'s Peter Ueberroth, who was turning the coming summer's Olympics into a highly profitable venture, Samaranch eagerly linked the IOC with sponsoring big businesses, and did well by it.   

     The new order of things was made plain to me when my interview with Samaranch was arranged not by Olympic press officials but by a well-connected Coca-Cola vice president whom I had met on the flight from the U.S. to Sarajevo. Coke was a big sponsor and the executive had Samaranch's ear. He had no trouble getting me in to see Samaranch exclusively, not at some big news conference. I'm still grateful to that very nice Coke guy, Randy something. Wish I could remember his last name. 

   Last time I laid eyes on Samaranch was at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when I was down there briefly with President Clinton and daughter Chelsea as that day's print pool reporter at the White House. (George Plimpton was my seatmate on that brief trip down and back.) Samaranch obviously enjoyed draping medals around the necks of winning swimmers.

    Samaranch made mistakes as IOC chief, as Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Abrahamson accurately writes in an excellent obit today. But his 21 years at the helm in Lausanne not only kept a dying global institution alive, they made it much stronger and propelled it into the 21st Century as an inspiration for sports lovers like me, who admire everything the Games represent as a celebration of the energy of youth.

Juan Antonio Samaranch: In Memoriam

    Juan Antonio Samaranch was a fun fascist.

    As Newsweek's chief correspondent for the 1984 summer and winter Olympics, I interviewed Samaranch in Sarajevo just before the winter games opened in that historic and doomed Bosnian city. I was warned that his understanding of spoken English was less than perfect, but the veteran Spanish diplomat and mainstay of the old Franco regime seemed to have no trouble handling the questions. He was knowledgeable, helpful and likeable, in a fatherly way. He would have made a good pope.   

     Samaranch's conversion of the International Olympic Committee from a financially strapped, near-moribund, boycott-plagued entity to a profitably corporate-linked giant was evident even in 1984, just four years after Samaranch took over the presidency. Following the lead of L.A.'s Peter Ueberroth, who was turning the coming summer's Olympics into a highly profitable venture, Samaranch eagerly linked the IOC with sponsoring big businesses, and did well by it.   

     The new order of things was made plain to me when my interview with Samaranch was arranged not by Olympic press officials but by a well-connected Coca-Cola vice president whom I had met on the flight from the U.S. to Sarajevo. Coke was a big sponsor and the executive had Samaranch's ear. He had no trouble getting me in to see Samaranch exclusively, not at some big news conference. I'm still grateful to that very nice Coke guy, Randy something. Wish I could remember his last name. 

   Last time I laid eyes on Samaranch was at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when I was down there briefly with President Clinton and daughter Chelsea as that day's print pool reporter at the White House. (George Plimpton was my seatmate on that brief trip down and back.) Samaranch obviously enjoyed draping medals around the necks of winning swimmers.

    Samaranch made mistakes as IOC chief, as Los Angeles Times reporter Alan Abrahamson accurately writes in an excellent obit today. But his 21 years at the helm in Lausanne not only kept a dying global institution alive, they made it much stronger and propelled it into the 21st Century as an inspiration for sports lovers like me, who admire everything the Games represent as a celebration of the energy of youth.