The Paper's special commentator Ye Kefei
Jacques Logue
On 29 August, the IOC announced that former IOC President Jacques Logue had died at the age of 79.
Between 2001 and 2013, Logue served as the eighth president of the International Olympic Committee, during which time he lived through the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games, as well as three Winter Olympic Games, and is known to Chinese for praising the Beijing Olympic Games as "unparalleled".
As Samaranch's successor, Logue faced many difficulties. Samaranch is a pioneer in the influence of the Olympic Games, making the Olympic Games the world's highest level of comprehensive sports event and making the Olympic Committee the richest sports organization in the world. But it is also because of the soaring commercial value that in the later stages of its helm, the Olympic family was in crisis.
For example, the endless bribery scandals have humiliated the Olympic Games, especially the scandal of the Bid for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics exposed at the end of 1998, which triggered a "big earthquake"; the over-commercialization, excessive scale and high cost of the Olympic Games themselves; and the increasingly serious doping problem, which has repeatedly hit the authority of the Olympic Committee.
The Olympic movement, which enters the 21st century, must also face the challenges of multiple factors such as competition, economics, politics and culture.
Logue also had high hopes, because before that, he was the fire captain of the Olympic Committee, responsible for coordinating various organizations and solving troubles. After being elected, Logue resigned as a doctor to become full-time IOC president, but remained an unpaid "volunteer president."
It is also this legendary President of the Olympic Committee who withstood all kinds of pressures during his term of office and allowed the ancient Olympic Games to continue to move forward in the new century.
Interestingly, Logue was an athlete and a surgeon who, when he took office, used the "scalpel" on the Olympics. He confessed: "As a doctor, if you have a tumor, you must remove it, squeeze out pus, and let the body recover. Once something goes wrong, I find out the crux of the problem as soon as possible and try to fix it. ”
In terms of anti-corruption, Logue has tightened the supervision of the bidding city's propaganda lobby, increased the transparency of the IOC's work, and acted more quickly and resolutely when dealing with members suspected of corruption.
In the area of anti-illicit drugs, he has worked with a number of organizations to establish the World Anti-Doping Commission and has joined forces with governments and international federations to form a united front against anti-illicit drugs. The World Anti-Doping Regulations, formally introduced in 2003, introduced a stricter "zero tolerance" policy and withstood pressure from major individual sports organizations.
Faced with the problem that the Olympic Games are too large, Logue actively planned to "slim down", re-evaluated and controlled the cost of the Olympic Games in 28 projects, reducing the burden on the host city. In the face of a global economic crisis, he could still stabilize the IOC's finances and reconcile the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee, which had been at odds with revenue for years.
In addition, Logue also actively developed the geographical map of the Olympic Games, and during his tenure, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil successfully bid for the Olympic Games. Although the Rio 2016 Olympics are inevitably controversial, as the first Olympic Games held in South America, it is still an important part of the annals of Olympic history.
In the face of the weakening enthusiasm of young people for the Olympic Games and even sports in the Internet age, Logue promoted the hosting of the Youth Olympic Games with the intention of arousing the interest of young people. His judgment that "culture and education are the foundation of the Olympic Movement" is not only the ideological guide of the Youth Olympic Games, but also the inheritance of Coubertin's Olympic ideals.
Compared to Samaranch, who propelled the Olympics globally and rose to become a business kingdom, Logue's exploits may not be as dazzling. He was once regarded by some people as dull because of his calm and soberness, but it was also this calm and soberness that allowed him to use the "scalpel" to remove the tumors that gradually grew in the development of the Olympic Games, making it more healthy and sustainable.
Logue is gone, and his "surgical legacy" remains.
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Lei