Jacques Rogge biography
Jacques Rogge, (born May 2, 1942, Ghent, Belgium), Belgian athlete and doctor who served as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013.
Rogge studied sports activities medication and earned his medical diploma in Great Britain earlier than returning to Belgium to work as an orthopedic surgeon in Deinze. He additionally lectured at Free University in Brussels and on the University of Ghent. A profitable athlete, he was a 16-time nationwide champion in rugby and a one-time yachting world champion. He additionally competed within the Finn class of crusing on the Summer Games in 1968, 1972, and 1976.
After retiring from competitors, Rogge grew to become concerned with the Belgian Olympic Committee, and from 1989 to 1992 he served as its president. In 1989 he additionally grew to become president of the European Olympic Committee, and in 1991 he joined the IOC; he grew to become a member of assorted IOC commissions, together with the medical committee, and in 1998 he joined the IOC government board. Rogge was instrumental in coordinating the profitable 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and in serving to to formulate the 2004 Games in Athens. In July 2001 Rogge grew to become president of the IOC, succeeding Juan António Samaranch of Spain. Rogge was elected within the hope that he would clear away the aura of scandal that had surrounded the IOC lately, notably the high-profile resignations and felony costs of bribery that grew out of the profitable bid by Salt Lake City, Utah, for the 2002 Winter Games. The new IOC president—the eighth within the 107-year historical past of the group—left his medical follow and took up residence in Lausanne, Switzerland, dwelling to the IOC headquarters.
In the wake of the September 11 assaults within the United States in 2001, Rogge was granted emergency powers to cancel the Games with out the vote of the total committee. Stating that he had no intention of exercising such authority, he was credited with sustaining calm whereas tightening safety on the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. He additionally grew to become the primary IOC president to lodge within the Olympic Village dormitories relatively than in a resort. An ongoing difficulty for the IOC was drug use by Olympians, and Rogge, who had served on the board of the World Anti-Doping Agency, elevated efforts to eradicate banned substances from the Games, particularly after Marion Jones, a five-time medalist on the 2000 Olympics, admitted in 2007 to utilizing steroids.
In an effort to maintain the Olympics related to a youthful technology, Rogge presided over the inclusion of youth-focused sports activities, together with snowboarding, which made its Olympic debut on the 2006 Turin Games, and BMX biking, which debuted on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. In 2007 he added the Youth Olympics to the Olympic calendar; the inaugural occasion was held in Singapore in 2010.