Juan Antonio Samaranch said of the 1992 Olympic Games that they had managed to change the mentality of the people of Barcelona. “Now they are more optimistic, less whiny,” he defended, in an interview in La Vanguardia in March 1996. The social – almost Olympic – sport of overseeing every single one of the 73 neighborhoods of Barcelona has not been lost, but if that summer achieved anything, all those who made it possible agree, it was to establish a confidence that never left. At the forefront of the metamorphosis, with permission from Maragall, was precisely the now deceased president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who passed away in 2010, a figure who was honored yesterday just in the year that marks 40 years since his “a la ville de… Barcelona”.
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Very few people manage to bring together in the same auditorium the Royal House, the Government, the Generalitat, and a city council of the stature of Barcelona’s. It has been, everyone agreed, “an outstanding debt,” a recognition from the city that in October 1986 began an urban transformation that left a legacy that still endures 34 years later.
Felipe VI praises the “personality of historical transcendence” of the father of modern Olympism
The event in the gardens of the Palauet Albéniz was a walk as light as it was complete through the life of Samaranch, a man who, as he used to say himself, fell in love with sport thanks to a skating rink installed in Turó Park. Barcelona inspired him and he devoted himself to it from 1980, when he took over the leadership of the Olympic body and sent a telegram to then mayor Narcís Serra, which the current councilor, Jaume Collboni, recounted yesterday. It said the following: “I appreciate the congratulations from my city, which I have always tried to serve, for my election as president of the IOC. I would be very happy if my management could help the Olympic vocation that Barcelona has always had.” You already know how the story ends: as the protagonist said, “the best Olympic Games in history.” “Barcelona owed him this tribute,” Collboni concluded. An event that counted, among other personalities, with the editor of La Vanguardia , Javier Godó, Count of Godó, the executive president of the Godó Group, Carlos Godó, and the director of La Vanguardia , Jordi Juan.
Felipe VI, Spain’s flag bearer on that July 25, 1992, praised Samaranch’s “personality of historical transcendence,” whom he described as “a man committed to his time and a loyal friend.” He recalled his constant defense of the values of “peace, freedom, and equality” and highlighted his “diplomacy, humanity, and intelligence” when addressing, the King recalled, thorny issues such as the end of the Cold War or the Balkan conflict.
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“He taught us to believe in ourselves,” said President Salvador Illa in his speech, convinced that contemporary sport “cannot be understood without Samaranch’s contribution.” In the same vein spoke the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco, who defined him as the great hero who brought the Games to Barcelona. “We have fought hard for this necessary and obligatory event,” said the top official of Olympism.
The family also spoke, who had the gesture of inviting the other family, the sports family, among whom were tennis player Manolo Orantes and swimmer Mari Paz Corominas. “It has been a great honor and continues to be to share Juan Antonio Samaranch with all of you,” said his daughter María Teresa.
