Today marks 100 years since birth of Juan Antonio Samaranch, Olympic president who added baseball, softball

Today marks 100 years since birth of Juan Antonio Samaranch, Olympic president who added baseball, softball
17/07/2020
During his tenure as IOC President both baseball and softball were admitted to the Olympic Games as medal sports.

July 17, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Juan Antonio Samaranch, the leader who gave the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a new life. Under his IOC presidency, both baseball and softball were admitted to the Games as medal sports.

Samaranch is credited for having increased gender representation and having formed an Athletes Commission. During his tenure, professional athletes were admitted to the Olympic Games. By the end of his presidency, Samaranch had travelled to all the 199 National Olympic Committees.

Samaranch was impressed by the success of the baseball demonstration tournament at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics. He commented on the 385,000 total spectators, saying: "The success of baseball in Los Angeles convinced me, baseball can be a medal sport."

Baseball was voted a medal sport on 13 October 1986 and assigned the first medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Samaranch had envisioned baseball and softball jointly candidating for the Olympics since the early 1980s. Robert Smith, at the time the International Baseball Federation President, shared his memory for the book The Game We Love.

"President Samaranch strongly suggested that we ought to work together and seek to get baseball in as the men's sport and softball in as the women's sport. But work as one entry in the Olympic Games,” Smith said.

Smith and Porter worked for some time on the idea of creating the International Confederation of Amateur Baseball and Softball. The project stood until 1986, when the IOC didn't approve softball as a medal sport.

Don Porter remembered: "President Samaranch kept repeating 'you are next' every time I saw him.

Softball was voted a medal sport on 13 June 1991 and assigned the first medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The tenure of Samaranch had already come to an end when baseball and softball were voted out of the Olympic programme in 2005. Samaranch served as the Honorary Chairman of the BackSoftball campaign in 2007 and 2008.

Samaranch was born on 17 July 1920 in Barcelona, Spain. He studied Business Administration in Barcelona, London and the USA and worked in the family textile business.
During his studies, he played roller hockey and was instrumental in creating the World Championship in 1951.

He held various political positions in municipal and national government. He also served as the Spanish Ambassador to the Soviet Union. His career within the Olympic Movement was very active since the 1950s. He was elected to the Executive Board of the IOC in 1970 and served as the Vice President from 1974 to 1978. He was elected President on 16 July 1980 and remained in office until 2001. He was then appointed IOC Honorary President for life.

Samaranch died on 21 April 2010. His son Juan Antonio Junior, born 1959, is currently an IOC Member.

Cover picture: Juan Antonio Samaranch with then International Softball Federation President Don Porter