Outgoing IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch has nominated his son, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., as one of seven candidates for membership by the International Olympic Committee’s ruling executive board. The seven were selected from a list of 76 proposed candidates.
The candidates will be put forward for election at the IOC session in Moscow on July 16, the same day Samaranch steps down after 21 years as president.
IOC director general Francois Carrard said, “this is not an exceptional case”, noting that seven or eight sons of IOC members have become delegates in the past. But it’s the first time an IOC president’s son has been nominated for membership.
He said, “being the son of a president doesn’t give anyone the right to be appointed or elected. But he’s a candidate. Being the son does not prevent or disqualify anybody from being a canadidate. If elected, he would be the IOC member in Spain.
Carrard said Samaranch is very active in international sport and in national sport in Spain. “There was no other candidate from Spain”.
IOC vice-president Kevan Gosper of Australia said of the nomation, “there’s plenty of precedent. The president is first of all an IOC member and there’s nothing to prevent that nomination and it was unanimously supported”. He added, “the rules have been completely met. It was a very orderly, open process, and he met every criteria”.
And IOC member Dick Pound said he was not suprised by the nomination. “He’s not the first son of an IOC member to become a member. It’s a new young member from an important country with a long tradition in the Olympic movement”.
