Rogge’s Reign As IOC Boss Ends

Jacques Rogge will not do anything different at the final Games in his function as International Olympic Committee president – he will sleep in the Olympic village and watch famous athletes and not so famous ones compete in London.

“I want to see all the sports on the program but of course I cannot see all the finals,” he said in an interview ahead of the Games at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“I want to see a couple of competitions between Americans Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps in the swimming pool, and want to be there when Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake decide who is the fatest man on earth.

“But I will also go to a number of other events that may not be so well known to the general public. My own sport of sailing. I will be in Weymouth and I want to see if Ben Ainslie can win a fourth consecutive gold. There are special events in fencing where I want to see if the Italian Valentina Vezzali, who has won three golds, can win a fourth one.

“I will be there,” he vowed.

Rogge took office in 2001 after a 21-year-rule of Juan Antonio Samaranch. Unlike the Spaniard, who resided in plush IOC hotels in the host cities, Rogge decided to lodge in the Olympic village just as in his active days as Olympic yachtsman and chef de mission of the Belgian team.

The 70-year-old has added a reform of the sports program to the general IOC overhaul made necessary in the wake of corruption issues.

Softball and baseball have been axed, with rugby and golf to join in 2016 as a cap of 28 sports and 10,500 athletes remains in effect.

Rogge hopes that this important legacy will be continued by his successor even though there will continue to be big opposition from sports federations and National Olympic Committees as no sports likes to lose the Olympic tag.

“We wanted a system by which there would be a renewal of the Olympic program, to have an Olympic program that is not static but dynamic,” Rogge said. “We have a system whereby at each Games there is a possibility for new sport to come in.”

Making the Olympics more appealing for the youth (the Youth Olympics are also his brainchild) is a factor in the decision-making just as gender equality, with women’s boxing added ion London and women’s ski-jumping on the program for the first time at the 2014 Winter Games.