800 Attend Funeral Service for Wife of IOC President
About 800 people joined International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch in a funeral Mass here Monday for his wife, Maria Teresa.
Samaranch said he would return to the Games in Sydney today.
The mourners included friends, sports officials and politicians from the northeastern region of Catalonia. Samaranch attended with his son and daughter and thanked people for the feelings they showed toward his wife, the state news agency EFE reported.
The Mass was held in the sanctuary Antoni de Padua in Barcelona, the city that hosted the Summer Olympics in 1992.
Mrs. Samaranch died Saturday in Barcelona after a long illness, only hours after her husband presided over the opening of the Sydney Games. She was 68.
Her body was cremated Sunday in Barcelona, where the family received condolences from Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Samaranch left Sydney the morning after the opening ceremony and flew home to be at his wife’s bedside. But she died while Samaranch was still in the air.
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