Rogge, Jacques

▪ 2002

      As a former Olympic yachtsman, Belgian Jacques Rogge was no stranger to rough waters, but he faced a flood of problems when he took over the helm of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in July 2001, succeeding outgoing president Juan António Samaranch of Spain, a figure who became nearly synonymous with the triumphs and excesses of the modern Olympic movement. Rogge was elected in the hope that he would clear away the aura of scandal that had imperiled the IOC in recent years, particularly the high-profile resignations and felony charges of bribery that grew out of the successful bid by Salt Lake City, Utah, for the 2002 Winter Games. Rogge, a medical doctor who served on the board of the World Anti-Doping Agency, was chosen to cleanse the public image of the IOC and bring some down-to-earth governance to what had become the most opulent sports organization in the world.

      Rogge won election to the eight-year post (with a possible four-year extension) over rivals Kim Un Yong of South Korea, Dick Pound of Canada, and Pal Schmitt of Hungary. His first challenge prior to the Olympic Games at Salt Lake City was to maintain calm and tighten security in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11. Though Rogge was granted emergency powers to cancel the Games without the vote of the full committee, he had no intention of backing out. Voicing his confidence in the safety of the event, he declared that he would take lodging in the Olympic Village dormitories along with the athletes, rather than in a hotel.

      Rogge was born on May 2, 1942, in Ghent, Belg. In Great Britain he studied sports medicine and earned his medical degree before returning to Belgium to work as an orthopedic surgeon in Deinze, where he performed as many as 800 operations a year. He also lectured at Free University in Brussels and the University of Ghent. A successful athlete, he was a 16-time national champion in rugby and one-time yachting world champion. He competed in the Finn class of sailing at the Summer Games in 1968, 1972, and 1976 before he left competition but not the Olympic movement. As the head official of Belgium's Olympic team in 1980, he refused to join the U.S.-led boycott of the Moscow Summer Games protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Despite intense pressure on Rogge, Belgian athletes competed in Moscow. “This was a milestone in my life,” Rogge declared later. “We thought it was our duty to participate in the Olympic Games.”

      In 1989 he became president of the European Olympic Committee, and in 1991 he joined the IOC; he became a member of various IOC commissions, including the medical committee, and in 1998 he joined the IOC executive board. Rogge was instrumental in coordinating the successful 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, and in helping to formulate the 2004 Games in Athens. The new IOC president—the eighth in the 107-year history of the organization—planned to leave his medical practice and take up residence in Lausanne, Switz., home to the IOC headquarters.

Tom Michael

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