IOC candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch says experience key to handling ‘complex world’
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Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior said he has the cool head required to deal with the plethora of problems that will arise.
Pool via REUTERS
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PARIS – International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidential candidate Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr said he has the experience to deal with heads of state in a rapidly changing world, where previously undisputed truths such as “universality, fraternity and unity” are now disputed.
“It’s a very complex world,” the financial analyst said on Feb 26.
The 65-year-old Spaniard and his six rivals to succeed Thomas Bach as the most powerful person in global sport will learn their fate when their fellow IOC members vote on March 20 in the Greek resort of Costa Navarino.
If successful, Samaranch would make history – his father of the same name was IOC president from 1980 to 2001.
He was first elected an IOC member the year his father stepped down and has forged a successful career within the body. He was elected vice-president in 2016 and again in 2022 while also occupying other high-profile roles.
All of which, he said, have given him the skill set to handle the rapidly shifting sands around the globe since Mr Donald Trump was re-elected US president.
“I think that the paradigm in which we live for the last 50 years about peace, order, it’s being really challenged. So we are looking at a world which is pretty complicated, but the key word to me is experience,” Samaranch said.
He admitted he does not have all the answers, but he has the cool head required to deal with the plethora of problems that will arise.
“You have to have the relevant experience, and I’ve been involved for many, many years, both in business experience, dealing with world business leaders, and in Olympic and non-Olympic matters with heads of state,” he added.
Samaranch said things are so serious globally that one quality must be in the IOC members’ minds when they vote.
“It is not about the face or the gender or the continent,” he said.
“Even in the easiest of times, we should elect the best person for the job. This is too important and too relevant for too many people to experiment.”
Even the normally unflappable Samaranch appears astonished by the rapidity with what was generally accepted as the basic tenets of society being turned on their head.
“Until a year ago or six months ago, we could go anywhere. We say universality, fraternity, unity. And that was undisputed truth. Now it’s a very disputed truth,” he said.
“Our (the IOC’s) values, I think, are more needed in the world than ever before because we are one of the only beacons left of this idea of universality, fraternity.
“The Olympics continue to be or are right now, unfortunately, one of the very, very few islands of hope of universality... and trumpeting and celebrating differences among humanity.”
Samaranch also said the 2024 Paris Olympics were the best Games he has ever attended, but there is one dark cloud – the issue of transgender athletes and those whose gender eligibility is questioned, such as two of the gold medal-winning women boxers.
His response, if elected, would be to set up a “scientific council” to establish a clear line to “ensure full protection of the women category” – and he said a solution is “urgent” before the 2026 Winter Olympics. AFP
