li Wang

A sad piece of news shocked the dignitaries and even each man showing concern about sports——on Sunday afternoon Juan Antonio Samaranch brought an end to his great life, the exact time is at five to eleven thirty in the morning of Greenwich Mean Time. In most people’s impression, this old man seemed to be invariably hearty and hale. He quitted his post from the International Olympics Committee and it never meant that he could stop his efforts to promote the development of the Olympic Games. At the same time, he incessantly helped his native country in the campaign bidding for the chance to hold the Olympics in 2012, though it ended with London’s successful bidding. Juan Samaranch is disturbed with health problems for years. As early as in the year 2012 when he passed on his chair to his successor Rogge, he was ever sent to his hospital for nearly two weeks for his feeling of being frequently tired. This time he was hospitalized due to his cardiac trouble and was diagnosed to be in an “extremely dangerous situation”. Later the world received the news that he passed away, a great loss to the sports world. Though with a short build, Juan Samaranch left us the impression that he is a sports colossus, active on the world sports stage ever since he was inaugurated in 1980. Before he set foot on the sports beat, he used to be a Spanish diplomat in Moscow. Most people said he was quite a well-educated and courtly gentleman; though a little bit shy, he had his unique skills to operate his machine and successfully promoted the development of the modern Olympic Games. This achievement is recognized by his colleagues, by his successor Rogge, and by almost everyone in the world. The first achievement lies in his creative commercialization of the Olympics with the aim and result to accustom the modern sport to the society. Consequently, large companies specialized in making and producing sports clothes, athletic equipment, foods and drinks, even sexy costumes, evening gowns, and etc can all find their place in sponsoring the modern sports. The high cost often brings in high profit for these companies, which is termed a win-win business pattern; for example, two company selling shiny metallic clothes and satchel handbags opened their Asian market after their debut in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.