Mario Vazquez Rana dies at 82; International Olympic Committee member
Mario Vazquez Rana, a Mexican businessman and former prominent member of the International Olympic Committee, has died. He was 82.
The Mexican Olympic Committee said he died Sunday in Mexico City, but gave no more details.
Vazquez Rana was the longtime head of the Assn. of National Olympic Committees, which made him one of the most powerful players for years inside the IOC. He was also a former executive board member of the IOC and was the current president of the Pan American Sports Organization.
In 2012 he resigned all his IOC positions, and also gave up control of ANOC. The action came after it was revealed that he faced a possible revolt from ANOC delegates who wanted to remove him from his powerful post. He had two years remaining in the ANOC position when he stepped down.
Vazquez Rana had headed ANOC since 1979 and used the office as his power base. He was also a close ally of former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Born June 7, 1932, in Mexico City, Vazquez Rana attended university in Puebla, Mexico, and earned a degree in business administration. Aside from sports administration, he was also a prominent businessman and media magnate in Mexico. He headed the Organizacion Editorial Mexicana, the country’s largest newspaper company, and owned the U.S. news agency United Press International in the late 1980s.
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