Ex-IOC head Samaranch in hospital

Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch, 89, has been admitted to a Barcelona hospital suffering from severe heart trouble and his prognosis is "very bad", a hospital spokesman said yesterday. "He is suffering from acute...

Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch, 89, has been admitted to a Barcelona hospital suffering from severe heart trouble and his prognosis is "very bad", a hospital spokesman said yesterday.

"He is suffering from acute coronary insufficiency and his prognosis is very bad," a spokesman for Barcelona's Quiron Hospital said.

In a statement, the hospital's chief of internal medicine Rafael Esteban said Samaranch was under "intensive observation".

Samaranch was head of the IOC from 1980 to 2001. Only Pierre de Coubertin, the "father" of the modern Olympics and IOC chief from 1896 to 1925, has held the post longer.

He is credited with commercialising the Olympics by allowing athletes to embrace professionalism.

Samaranch is now an honorary life president of the body which runs the Olympics and remains active in Spanish sports administration.

In recent years he was a key part of Madrid's failed bids to hold the Olympics in 2012, which London eventually won, and 2016, which went to Rio de Janeiro.

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