어제(월21일)는 올림픽운동의 큰 별 사마란치 전 IOC위원장 서거 1주년이 되는 날 이었습니다.
사마란치 전 IOC위원장의 생애와 연결된 한국 스포츠외교 발자취에 대하여 영어로 글을 올립니다.
21 April 2010 was a gloomy day for the entire Olympic Movement.
It was an "earthquake and tsunami" to the world sport.
Icelandic volcano heralded such a bitter sorrow to the whole world.
Even the sky mourned the loss of the Olympic God Father.
Who said “April is the cruelest month.”?
Sadly enough President Samaranch passed away just less than 3 months shy of his 90th birthday last year.
He was born in
He was elected IOC member in 1966.
He was elected IOC President in 1980.
He was elected Honorary IOC President in 2001.
He was the second longest serving IOC President (for 21 years) in the history of the Olympic Movement.
He skillfully protected the Games from the boycott.
He wholeheartedly contributed to the success of each and every edition of the Games including the 1988
He became the first recipient of the
He is the record holder in terms of the number of visits to the host city of the Games.
He paid visits over 35 times to
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(With Juan Antonio Samaranch, Jr., IOC member in
Throughout my 29-year long period (25 years services at the Korean NOC) in the Olympic Movement, I was deeply inspired by his initiatives toward the Olympic Revolution, even including his typical voice, accents and his own vocabularies.
(IOC Evaluation Commission Members/2008 in
During travels and visits of the bid cities as part of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2008 Olympics, I used to make verbal assessments on daily works of our whole team by imitating his voice and accents mostly on the evenings over cocktails.
That offered some amount of fun to most of our team members chaired by Mr. Hein Verbruggen.
The late President Samaranch was my role model and hero and mentor.
He was a man of practicality.
It was President Samaranch that demanded the IOC Evaluation Commission to practically draft the final report to specifically serve the purpose for the IOC members.
It was his thoughtfulness and insightfulness that 2-page (A4 size) long condensed report by the IOC Evaluation Commission would be good enough to provide the IOC members with essential details and judging elements for balloting.
(IOC Evaluation Team/2008 in
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(After completing a final evaluation report on 5 candidate-cities for 2008 Olympics/IOC HQs. Lausanne: the late Samaranch, Mr. Francisco Elizalde, IOC Member in Philippines, Tommy Sithole, IOC EB member-turned to IOC Director of Internaitonal Cooperartion and Rocky Yoon)
Based on my personal experiences, let me summarize his character as follows:
1) He was meticulous.
2) He was fine and delicate.
3) He was elaborate.
4) He was accurate.
5) He was careful and cautious.
6) He was exquisite.
7) He was moderate.
8) He was intelligent.
9) He was clever.
10) He was wise.
11) He was smart.
12) He was knowledgeable.
13) He was well-informed.
14) He was diplomatic.
15) He was politically skillful and sensitive.
16) He was punctual.
17) He had a perfect sense of timing.
18) He was under perfect control of health care, trying to be in good shape at all times.
19) He was always thoroughly prepared.
20) He was calculative and precise.
21) He was cool-headed.
22) He was calm and discreet.
23) He was realistic.
24) He was shrewd and prudent.
25) He was charismatic.
26) He was totally responsibility-minded.
27) He was erudite.
28) He was honor-oriented.
29) He was faithful to duty and friendship.
30) He was warm-hearted.
Let me epitomize his deeds and achievements as IOC President which include but not limited to the following:
1) He abolished the term of ‘Amateurism’ at the Olympic Games.
2) He introduced ‘Commercialism’ and ‘Professionalism’ into the Olympic Games on a balanced level.
3) He improved the financial health of the Olympic Movement (IOC, IFs and NOCs) by developing TV rights and sponsorship known as ‘Top Partnership” and revenue-sharing mechanism.
4) He strengthened Olympic Solidarity, and created the organ named the “Olympic Solidarity” through which the IOC redistributes its revenue which enables the NOCs to train and participate their athletes in the Olympic Games.(100% participation by the 205 NOCs)
5) He effectively and efficiently integrated the global sport-related organizations :
-GAISF/AGFIS (105 Olympic and Non-Olympic international sports federations) <now newly branded as SportAccord>
-ASOIF (28 summer Olympic sports international federations)
-AIOWF (7 winter Olympic sports international federations)
-ARISF (multi-number of non-Olympic international federations)
6) He played a leading role in representing the women in the IOC in terms of entry of the first woman members on the 1980s.
7) He increased the percentage (20%) of women participation in the decision-making body of the Olympic Movement.
8) He increased the number of disciplines for women in the Olympic program sports.
9) He was instrumental in setting up the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
10) He was the founder of OlympAfrica Foundation.
10) He paved the way for athletes to get involved in the decision-making of the IOC by creating the IOC Athletes’ Commission.
11) He moved forward to include Chairman of the IOC Athletes’ Commission as a member of the IOC Executive Board.
12) He was responsible for the new IOC headquarters building in Chateau de Vidy by renovating and restructuring its function and role as a supreme global sport-governing body.
13) He pioneered the establishment of the Olympic Museum in
14) He took the lead in fund-raising for the construction of the Olympic Museum.
15) He was entrusted as the first Chairman of the Olympic Museum, thus contributing to the advancement of the Olympic Movement.
16) He ironed out 30 years of reforms in six months for which the IOC approved a 50-point reform action-plan drafted in the aftermath of the
17) He brought in diversity and dynamism within the organization by co-opting people from all global social strata as IOC members, running the gamut from athletes and women through sport administrators, coaches, judges to the film director, business people, ministers and many others in addition to royal family members, princes, princesses, dukes, etc.
18) He institutionalized the Olympics by introducing cultural events and educational programs, thereby culminating the Olympic values of excellence, fair play, and respect.
19) He terminated the boycott from the Olympic Movement.
20) He reached around the world, embracing Messrs. Mario Vazquez Rana of
21) He began the fight against doping, thus paving the way to create the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
22) He accelerated the initiatives of the Olympic Truce.
23) He achieved the separate participation of
24) He made
25) He put the stepping stone to reunification of South and North Koreas by arranging the joint marching of two Korean delegations, hand-in-hand, at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
26) He saw the reunification of
27) He witnessed the joint marching of 12-nation CIS (
Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 3 independent nations from Yugoslavia, Estonia,
28) He reluctantly saw his tenure was unfortunately tarnished by
29) He suggested that summer and winter Olympics would have to be separately held at two-year intervals for marketing and TV rights -friendly reasons. 1994 Lillehammer/winter and 1996 Atlanta/summer was his first such Olympics package.
30) He realized the idea of sending the official invitation to the NOCs for the Olympics not by the OCOG but by the IOC for the first time in history from the 1988
31) He was the first recipient of the
Considering all his achievements and contributions, he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize even now.
I sincerely hope that the entire Olympic Movement would confer posthumous honors of “Nobel Peace Prize” on him.
In summary, let me humbly define our respected President Samaranch as under:
1) He was a great sport leader.
2) He was an outstanding businessman.
3) He was a formidable sport organizer and orchestrator.
4) He was an unprecedented IOC President.
5) He was a perfect presider of meetings and conferences.
6) He was a bona-fide philatelist and collector. (Annie Inchauspe, President Samaranch, Rocky Yoon/109th IOC Session Seoul 1999)
7) He was an operation architect with an eye for beauty.
8) He was a renowned banker (at Caixa).
9) He was a consummate fund-raiser.(Olympic Museum)
10) He was an all-round planner and multi-player.
11) He was an impeccable diplomat.
12) He was a pacifist.
13) He was a quiet negotiator with consummate skills.
14) He was a master in consulting people before taking a decision.
15) He was a creator of consensus by shrewd persuasion and debate.
16) He was a trouble-shooter, problem-settler, and trouble-solving leader.`
17) He was an industrious person.
18) He was a life-time sport practicer.
19) He was a multi-lingual.
20) He was a world traveler visiting a record-number of countries. (all 205 IOC member-NOCs/Nations?)
21) He was a man (Jack) of all trades.
22) He was a great human-being.
23) He was a good husband, good father and good grandfather.
24) He was a man of “Unity” and “Olympic Solidarity”.
25) He was and will be remembered as an Olympic God Father.
26) He was a man of foresight and courage.
27) He was a founder of new paradigm of modern Olympics.
28) He was the savior of the Olympic Movement.
29) He was a visionary and thoughtful leader.
30) He was a towering figure in the world of sport.
31) He was an immortal Olympic man.
32) He was the first recipient of the
33) He was my Olympic teacher, mentor, and guide post.
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(The last photo with the late President Samaranch)
I still vividly remember my questions to President Samaranch at the joint meeting with IOC Executive Board and NOCs during the ANOC General Assemblies of 1996 Cancun, 1998 Seville, 2000 Rio de Janeiro about a couple of issues. Now he is gone, but I seem to hear his typical resounding voice. His words are still ringing in my ears.
As a chief-organizer of the 109th IOC Session in
(Dr. Un-Yong Kim, KOC President and IOC VP, Samaranch, Rocky Yoon)
In 2000-2001, I had the honor and privileges of working after being nominated by President Samaranch as one of the members of his last IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2008 Olympics(under the chairmanship of Mr. Hein Verbruggen) during his last-period of tenure as IOC President(2001).
During spring time in 2007, I paid a visit to meet with President Samaranch at his office in
During the interview, I felt his inward power as master of sport diplomat.
I was inspired and impressed by his profound affection in sport and the Olympic Movement.
I still vividly remember his face full of grace and his way of talking full of affinity for sport.
It was my first time to feel that he was so warmheartedly sentimental.
I was greatly fascinated by his seriousness, thoughtfulness, and profundity as my respected senior in the Olympic movement.
Holding my hands so warmly to pose for a photo was his last teaching on how to properly shake hands for a nice protocol photo.
“Parting was such a sweet sorrow…” I left him behind until we met together in
“Ah, he now departed us forever, but we did not send him away …”
Nearly for 30 years in the Olympic Movement, I served him, respected him, and used to translate his speeches and dialogue during his visits to
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(Prior to his press interview at the airport lounge in
I express my deepest sympathy and condolences.
May he rest in peace in heaven!
And may God bless him forever!
Yours very sincerely,
Rocky Kang-Ro YOON
(The late President Samaranch's first visit to KOC 1983: Anti-clockwise//Jip Kim, Se-Won Kim, the late Sang-Ho Cho, the late Ju-Yung Chung/KOC President <not seen in the photo>Rocky Yoon, Samaranch, Tae-Woo Roh, Young-Ho Lee, the late Sheikh Fahad, Sharad Chandra Shah)
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