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The jury of theFCG international sports award, in a meeting in either the youth and composedof the following distinguished personalities: Mrs. Mª del Carmen IzquierdoVergara, Mr. Manuel Erice, Mr. Pedro Delgado, Mr. Conrado Durántez, Mr. AmalioMoratalla, under the presidency off Mr. Conrado Durantes and with Mr. AmalioMoratalla, acting as secretary, unanimously decided to award the FCGinternational sports award to Mr. ANTONIO SAMARANCH, because of the impulse hegave the modern Olympic movement during his 21 years at the head of theInternational Olympic Committee.

Juan AntonioSamaranch Torelló

President of theinternational Olympic committee, was born in Barcelona on the 17th of  July 1920.  His  first  work  efforts  wereoriented towards obtaining the titles that would allow him to work in thetextile business that his family had, being trained the in a variety of fieldsas corresponded to the industrial class of Barcelona in the 1930s.  He becamea business teacher and later graduated from the Instituto de EstudiosSuperiores de la Empresa.

His name has beenlinked to sports and politics for over 50 years.  The first sport to whichhe directed his interest was skate hockey and in the middle of the forties hebecame a member of the Royal Spanish sports club.

He then becamenational skate hockey coach and in 1951 brought to the Spanish team to itsfirst world victory that same year he created the Spanish veneration of icehockey and Samaranch was named its President.

He started hispolitical activity in Barcelona city Council as sports Counsellor, a positionwhich he held between 1954 and 1962. He was also President of the sportscommission of the Barcelona provincial authority between 1955 and 1966 and therepresentative of Catalunya to the National Delegation and Physical Educationand Sports.

Between 1973 and1977 he was President of the Barcelona provincial authority and in this latestyear was named the Spanish ambassador to the Soviet Union and Mongolia, inrecognition of his diplomatic and conciliation skills.  He occupied thisposition until 1980 and in this way Juan Antonio Samaranch was the firstSpanish diplomatic representative in Moscow after re-establishing officialrelations with that country.

He was a member ofthe Spanish Olympic Committee from 1956 until 1967 and was its President duringthe period from 1967 to 1970.  In December 1966 he was appointed directorof physical Education and sports in Spain, a position which he occupied untilSeptember 1970.

He was head of theSpanish mission to the Olympic games in Cortina d’Ampezzo (1956), Rome (1960)and Tokyo (1964). He was also vice president of the Mediterranean gamesinternational committee, President of honour of the roller-skating FederationInternationale, President off the Salón Náutico International ofBarcelona, and vice president of the International Federation of NauticalExhibitions.

He was electedmember of the international Olympic Committee 1966 and became a member of itsexecutive commission in May 1970.  He was elected vice president inOctober 1974.  He was also President of the press commission and head ofOlympic protocol.

As a member of theInternational Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch continued his unceasingwork and was elected president in 1980 by the members of the organization, inthe first vote, during the 83rd session of the International Olympic Committeewhich was held in Moscow.  As President of the International OlympicCommittee, his efforts in favour of the independence and solidarity of sport,reached its zenith in the Seoul Games which were not threatened by the boycottwhich had existed in the Moscow and Los Angeles Games.  At the end of theperiods for which he had been elected, in the years 1989 in Puerto Rico, 1993in Monaco and in 1997 Lausanne, he was re-elected until his retirement in 2001

Completelydedicated to the universality of the games, he could clearly see thatprofession unless he should be excepted the sponsorship should be promoted andgiven an impulse and of the participation of all the countries in the worldshould be achieved and that there should be no obstacle to the participation ofwomen.

Five key successescould be mentioned as the exponents of his Olympic project:

-the economicsuccess of the Los Angeles games in 1984.

-having wiselyavoided any possible boycott of the Seoul games in 1988, in spite of the knownparticipation of North Korea.

-the turn of SouthAfrica to the Barcelona games in 1992, after 32 years of punishment.

-having made awoman a member of the international Olympic Committee for the first time

-- having managedto achieve the participation of all the national Olympic committees of theworld and brilliant management of the economic power of international OlympicCommittee.

The 17th ofOctober 1986 is one of the best remembered dates in his career because hefulfilled one of his greatest dreams: he announced in the 91st session of theinternational Olympic Committee, held in the Swiss town of Lausanne, that thecity of Barcelona had been chosen as the venue all of the 25th Olympic games tobe held in 1992.

A few years later,he received the Golden medal of the city of Barcelona, during the activitiesthat were held to celebrate the first year of the designation of Barcelona asthe venue for the 1992 Olympic games.  He also received the Golden medalof the Generalitat de Catalunya, several national and foreign Great Crosses andhas been awarded several Doctor Honoris Causa by Spanish universities and thoseof other countries.  In March 2000 he was awarded the Collar de laOrden de Isabel la Católica, the highest civil merit which can be given bythe Spanish state..

In May 1987, JuanAntonio Samaranch was elected president of  “Caixa d’Estalvis iPensions de Barcelona” (La Caixa), having been member of the boardof directors of that bank since 1984 and member of its executive commissionsince 1985.  He occupied this position until January 1999 when he becamepresident of honour of the entity.

He is a member of l’AcadémieFrançais des Sports, of the Reial Academia de Belles Arts de SantJordi and an honorary member of Real Academia de Bellas Artes de SanFernando. He was awarded the peace prize of South Korea as well as thePrince of Asturias sports award 1988.

In 1991 hereceived the noble title of Marqués de Samaranch.