The Role of the IOC Presidents in the Transformation of the International Olympic Movement after World War II

Abstract

The post-war period – over 70 years undisturbed by any historical cataclysms – has been a significant time of work, transformation and constant development of the international Olympic movement. Its current position in the world has beenshaped to a large extent by the successive IOC Presidents: Sigfrid Edstrom (1946–1952), Avery Brundage (1952–1972), Michael Morris lord Killanin (1972–1980), Juan Antonio Samaranch (1980–2001), Jacques Rogge (2001–2013) and Thomas Bach (from 2013). An objective comparison of their achievements is extremely difficult and complicated. They were active in different times which entailed completely different problems and challenges. The IOC under their leadership has gradually transformed from a gentlemen’s club into a transnational corporation. All of them were undoubtedly eminent personalities and real leaders of the Olympic movement. However, they were sports technocrats rather than sublime intellectuals. Still, the most important fact is that the Presidents of the IOC have managed to protect the Olympic movement from losing its unity and secured the continuity of the Olympic Games. That is how they went down in the history of sport.