Samaranch Is Elected by Acclamation

Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, president of the International Olympic Committee since 1980, was elected to another four-year term Wednesday by the 89 voting members.

With no opposition, Samaranch, 73, was elected by acclamation to preside over the Olympic movement through the Games of the Centennial, the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta.

Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles, an IOC member since 1986, also was elected without opposition in her bid to remain on the powerful 11-member executive board.

Elected to the board in 1992 to fill the remaining year on the term of Robert Helmick, who resigned from the IOC during a conflict-of-interest inquiry, she now will serve a full four-year term.

In a related matter, DeFrantz said she had met Wednesday with the U.S. Olympic Committee’s president, LeRoy Walker, and executive director, Harvey Schiller, in an effort to reach a consensus on names they should submit to Samaranch as candidates for the United States’ second position on the IOC.