Jacques ROGGE

On 16 July 2001, Jacques Rogge was elected to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch and become the 8th President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Rogge was an accomplished sailor, competing in three Olympic Games (1968, 1972, 1976) with his best finish in that sport being 14th in the Finn Monotype Class in 1972 at Munich. He also competed on one world championship team in sailing and was 16 times Belgian champion. In addition, he competed internationally for Belgium in rugby football, at which he was selected 10 times for the national team. Rogge is the former Chairman of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Medical Commission, serving in his capacity as an orthopaedic surgeon, specializing in sports medicine. He was formerly chief of the Orthopaedic Surgery Department at Ghent Hospital, although he has stopped practising medicine since his election as IOC President. As a sports administrator he became head of the Comité Olympique et Interfédéral Belge in 1989 and in 1990 became President of the European Olympic Committees (EOC). He was elected a member of the IOC in 1991 and was appointed to the Executive Board in 1998. During his IOC Presidency, he has worked to further the fight against doping, streamline the Olympic Program, and also try to control some of the costs of both the Olympic Games and running the IOC itself.