Samaranch, Juan Antonio (1920– )

Spanish president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) 1980–2001. He was responsible for transforming the amateur Olympic Games by allowing professional athletes to take part.

Samaranch was a roller-hockey player in the 1940s, became a banker and property developer, and financed the world roller-hockey championships in Barcelona in 1951. A member of the Spanish Olympic Committee from 1954, he became a member of the IOC in 1966. He was sports minister 1966–70 and ambassador to the USSR 1977–80. The Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 were the first to be financed through corporate sponsorship rather than with government money, and from then on there were many bids from cities wanting to host the Games. Re-elected in 1989, 1993, and 1997, Samaranch opened the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1993, near the headquarters of the IOC. He was created Marquis of Samaranch in 1992 and was succeeded as IOC president by Jacques Rogge of Belgium.