Sheik Is Eulogized by IOC

Sheik Fahd al Ahmed al Sabah, who was killed during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, was remembered Friday as a progressive and ambitious leader in international sports.

Fahd had been a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1981, president of the Olympic Council of Asia and a vice president of both the international soccer and team handball federations.

According to an IOC statement, Fahd was killed Thursday while defending the Dasman Palace of his brother, Kuwait ruler Jabbar Al Ahmed al Sabah.

“The Olympic movement has thus lost a highly valued personality whose contribution to Olympicism and sport in Kuwait, Asia and the world was especially fruitful,” the IOC said.

Anita DeFrantz, an IOC member from Los Angeles, said Fahd was active in a movement to encourage more Asian women to participate in sports.

She said intermediate hurdler Nawal El Mouwatakel, who in 1984 became the first Moroccan woman to win an Olympic gold medal, recently went to Kuwait at Fahd’s invitation to advise him.

He also assisted in the organization of a symposium on women’s sports in Asia, which is scheduled for mid-August in Thailand.

“He wanted to be influential in international sports,” DeFrantz said. “He was on the way up.”

Elected this summer as vice president of the international soccer federation, Fahd was credited for the renewed enthusiasm for the sport in his country. Kuwait advanced to the World Cup for the first time in 1982.

“He was responsible for new ideas, remodeled stadiums, better coaches and youth programs in Kuwait,” said Keith Walker, secretary general of the U.S. Soccer Federation.

“We’ve lost somebody who contributed to the sports movement in a big way. He was a doer, somebody who could get things done all over the world.”