Samaranch Out of Intensive Care

Juan Antonio Samaranch, IOC president until Monday, was close to death earlier this week, it was disclosed Friday.

Samaranch, 81, IOC president for 21 years, was admitted early Wednesday to a hospital here with breathing problems attributed to fluid in his lungs. For the first couple of hours after he was admitted, the situation was touch and go, IOC officials said.

On Friday, Samaranch was out of intensive care and resting comfortably, said Francois Carrard, IOC director general. New IOC President Jacques Rogge, a Belgian physician, said Samaranch is on a “speedy way to recovery” and “in a very good mood.” Samaranch is likely to remain in the hospital for at least a week longer.

Because of his condition, Samaranch missed a ceremony at which the keys to the IOC’s headquarters on the Lake Geneva lakefront were handed over to Rogge. Standing in for Samaranch was Keba Mbaye of Senegal, long a trusted Samaranch aide, who said he had just visited the former president in the hospital for advice about what to say at the ceremony.

According to Mbaye, Samaranch said, “You know, the day before yesterday, I nearly died.” Samaranch also told him that after all that the IOC did at a just-concluded session in Moscow--Rogge was elected the IOC’s eighth president and Beijing was awarded the 2008 Summer Games--dying “would have been nearly a joy, nearly a joy.”

Speaking in French at the ceremony, with English translation provided simultaneously, Mbaye also said: “Stay with us, Juan. We still need you. We need your great advice. We need your opinions.”