Jacques Rogge

Jacques Rogge with Juan Antonio Samaranch and Vladimir Putin following Rogge's election as IOC President in 2001

Rogge was elected as President of the IOC on 16 July 2001 at the 112th IOC Session in Moscow as the successor to Juan Antonio Samaranch, who had previously led the IOC since 1980.[17]

At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Rogge became the first ever IOC President to stay in the Olympic village, thereby enjoying closer contact with the athletes.[18]

In October 2009 he was re-elected for a new term as President of the IOC. In September 2013 at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, German Thomas Bach (who had won a gold medal in fencing at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal) was elected as his successor.

In 2011, a Forbes magazine list of the 68 most powerful people in the world listed Rogge at no. 67.[19]

On 27 July 2011, one year prior to London 2012, Rogge attended a ceremony at Trafalgar Square where he invited athletes worldwide to compete in the forthcoming Olympic Games. Former Olympians the Princess Royal and Sebastian Coe unveiled the medals up for grabs, after both Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson had given speeches.

In December 2011, Rogge was invested as an Officer of the Légion d'honneur by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[20]

Jacques Rogge's IOC Presidency came to an end at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires. German Thomas Bach was elected as the new IOC President at the session on 10 September 2013.[21] Rogge was then made Lifetime Honorary President of the IOC, a position which he held until his death in 2021.[22]

PRC internet censorship

For the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China, Rogge pronounced in mid-July 2008 that there would be no Internet censorship by PRC government authorities: "for the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China". However, by 30 July 2008, IOC spokesman Kevan Gosper had to retract this optimistic statement, admitting that the Internet would indeed be censored for journalists.[23] Gosper, who said he had not heard about this, suggested that high IOC officials (probably including the Dutch Hein Verbruggen and IOC Director of the Olympic Games, Gilbert Felli, and most likely with Rogge's knowledge) had made a secret deal with PRC officials to allow the censorship, without the knowledge of either the press or most members of the IOC.[24] Rogge later denied that any such meeting had taken place, but failed to insist that the PRC adhere to its prior assurances that the Internet would not be censored.

The play Dear Mr. Rogge, written by Dinah Lee Küng in 2012, depicts an imprisoned PRC dissident who wrote a letter challenging Rogge to walk from the Birds Nest stadium to Beijing Prison No. 2 in order to check the truth of Rogge's claim that hosting the Olympics would serve as a catalyst only for good in the country.[25]

Criticism of Bolt's jubilation

Rogge commented that Usain Bolt's gestures of jubilation and excitement after winning the 100 meters in Beijing are "not the way we perceive being a champion," and also said "that he should show more respect for his competitors."[26] In response to his comments, Yahoo! Sports columnist, Dan Wetzel, who covered the Games, described him as "a classic stiff-collared bureaucrat," and further contended that "[the IOC] has made billions off athletes such as Bolt for years, yet he has to find someone to pick on".[27] In an interview with Irish Times' reporter Ian O'Riordan, Rogge clarified, "Maybe there was a little bit of a misunderstanding.... What he does before or after the race I have no problem with. I just thought that his gesticulation during the race was maybe a little disrespectful".[26]

Munich Massacre moment of silence

Rogge rejected calls for a minute of silence to be held to honor the 11 Israeli Olympians killed 40 years prior in the Munich massacre, during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics. He did this despite the standing request of the families of the 11 Israeli Olympic team members and political pressure from the United States, Britain, and Germany, stating: "We feel that the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident." Speaking of the decision, Israeli Olympian Shaul Ladany, who had survived the Munich massacre, commented: "I do not understand. I do not understand, and I do not accept it."[28] Rogge and the IOC instead opted for a ceremony at Guildhall, London, on 6 August, and one at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base on the anniversary of the attack, 5 September.[29]

Rogge received several honorary degrees (honoris causa) :

• Baku State University, Azerbaijan
• Semmelweis University, Hungary
• École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
• Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Poland[34]
• University of Southern Denmark[35]
• Lithuanian Sports University[36]
• Ghent University, Belgium in 2001
• Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine, in October 2006[37]
• Beijing Sport University, China, on 24 October 2006[38]
• Galileo University, Guatemala, on 30 June 2007[39]
• University of Porto, Portugal, in November 2009[40]
• National Sports Academy of Bulgaria, in January 2009[41]
• University of Oradea, Romania, in September 2010[42]
• Royal Military Academy (Belgium) on 28 October 2010[43]
• KU Leuven, Belgium in 2012
• National University of Ukraine on Physical Education and Sport, in May 2018[44]