IOC Member Julian Roosevelt Is Dead at 61

Julian Roosevelt, a controversial U.S. representative on the International Olympic Committee, has died of a liver ailment after nearly four decades of Olympic involvement, first as a yachtsman and later in helping to shape the Games’ policies.

As a member of the IOC, Roosevelt stirred an international furor by calling for readmitting South Africa to the 1984 Games, and he was censured by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

He also was an outspoken critic of the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow and more recently opposed allowing professionals to compete in the Games.

Roosevelt, who was 61, won a gold medal in yachting at the 1952 Games. He was also on the team in 1948 and 1956.

“The Olympic movement has lost a very forceful supporter,” said Bob Paul, special assistant to the secretary general of the U.S. Olympic Committee and a friend of Roosevelt for 20 years.

Roosevelt, a grandnephew of President Theodore Roosevelt, died Thursday at Glen Cove Hospital on Long Island, near his home in Centre Island, where he lived with his wife, Margaret, and their children.