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Samaranch bows out with final speech
Updated: Monday July 16, 2001 6:23 PM
MOSCOW (AP) -- The awarding of the 2008 Olympics to Beijing should help open China to the outside world and promote its economic and social development, Juan Antonio Samaranch said Monday in his final speech as IOC president. "The goal of Olympism is to place, everywhere, sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society, concerned with the preservation of human dignity," Samaranch told delegates at the IOC's congress. "It is based on these fundamental principles that the session designated Beijing which, I am convinced, will organize a very successful Games," he said. "There is no doubt that the organization of the Games of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing in 2008 will serve the economic and social development and will enable China to further open up to the world," he said. The IOC awarded Beijing the 2008 Games last Friday, ahead of Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka. Samaranch was widely believed to favor Beijing. In a series of tributes to Samaranch, Chinese IOC member He Zhenliang took the floor to thank the outgoing president. "You are an older brother. You always helped us," he said. "You are a message of peace, solidarity, international respect and mutual understanding." Samaranch told IOC delegates that he hoped there would be no return to the boycotts and political divisions that characterized the start of his rule 21 years ago. "When in July 1980 you entrusted me with the presidency of our organization, in this city of Moscow, Olympism had become an element of confrontation and exploitation for political purposes," he said. "The successive boycotts which we were subject to, achieved nothing, except to penalize innocent athletes, who had no connection with the settling of political scores between the different powers of the Cold War. Our economic situation was also in poor condition," he said. He said he was confident that the Olympic movement was in good hands with Jacques Rogge, who was elected Monday. "It now falls to my successor Dr. Jacques Rogge to take up the conductor's baton, as I like to say, to ensure that each one plays their score in harmony," he said. "The only appeal I would like to make today, to each and every one of you, is to ensure the preservation and consolidation of the unity of the constituents of the Olympic movement. Without this unity, our strength would be diminished," he said. Samaranch paid a special tribute to his late wife, who died last year at the start of the Sydney Olympics. And he finished on a personal, humble note. "Thank you for having allowed me to serve the Olympic movement," he said. "Goodbye and hasta la vista."
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