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Samaranch in stable condition
Updated: Thursday July 19, 2001 12:56 PM LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former president of the International Olympic Committee, who has been hospitalized due to fatigue, is in a stable condition, the IOC said Thursday. An IOC spokeswoman said there had been no change since late Wednesday, when the organization said its retired president was doing well. But she said she could give no more details. Samaranch was taken to a hospital in Lausanne on Tuesday night -- his 81st birthday -- shortly after returning from an IOC meeting in Moscow. He ended his 21-year term as IOC president Monday when the Belgian Jacques Rogge was elected to replace him. Samaranch was appointed IOC honorary life president. The IOC said Samaranch, who is expected to stay in hospital for several more days, will not attend Friday's ceremony in Lausanne when Rogge will officially take over as the organization's president. On Wednesday, IOC Director-General Francois Carrard told The Associated Press that Samaranch had suffered breathing difficulties while giving an interview to a Spanish radio station. He returned to Switzerland on Tuesday evening, arriving in Geneva at 7:45 p.m. (1745 GMT) following a three-hour flight from Moscow and then traveled on to Lausanne, where the IOC is based. "On the flight back, Mr. Samaranch did not look at all depressed. On the contrary, he was very relaxed," said Carrard. "But he hid the fact that he would be doing interviews when he got back until midnight. I don't know how he could have managed to do that. I would have been cross-eyed by ten o'clock." Samaranch had a grueling schedule in Moscow, with meetings starting at 9 a.m. daily and receptions or dinners in his honor most evenings. It was also hot and humid in the Russian capital, and many of the venues had no air conditioning. At times during the Moscow session, he looked shaky and tired. After Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games on Friday, he had to be reminded to sign the host Games contract before ending the meeting. But until the end, Samaranch retained absolute control of the movement, snuffing out pleas from at least one IOC member for him to withdraw the nomination of his son as a member.
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