Walther Troeger, 91, Honorary IOC Member

(ATR) Honorary IOC member Walther Tröger has died at the age of 91.

For decades, he was considered one of the most influential German sports officials and belonged to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for many years in various functions.

"Walther Tröger made a great contribution to the IOC, first as its Sports Director, then as a Member and lately as an Honorary Member," IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement.

"I got to know him as a person with a great passion for sport and an immense knowledge about the Olympic Movement already when we met for the first time in the 1970s, when he was Secretary General of the NOC and I was an athlete. In all his activities over the many years, Walther Tröger worked tirelessly in the administration of sport and made a major impact on the development of German and international sport," Bach said.

The attack on the Munich Olympics on September 5, 1972 was probably the greatest challenge in Tröger's decades-long career as a sports official. As mayor of the Olympic village, he negotiated with the Palestinian terrorists who had taken Israeli athletes, coaches and judges hostage. "I was there until the end," Tröger, who died Wednesday (Dec. 30) at age 91, later reported. "My job was to keep extending the ultimatums." The attack killed 17 people.

According to his family, Tröger died peacefully from "age-related causes". Tröger's son Wolfram Tröger and daughter Sabine Groß paid tribute to him as a person who "used his sense of responsibility, clarity of decision, humanity and reliability" throughout his life in the service of German and international sport.

Born in the Bavarian town of Wunsiedel, Tröger began his career in sports politics at the German University Association, which he helped steer as secretary general from 1953 to 1961. Tröger then moved to the National Olympic Committee (NOK) in the same position until he rose to become Sports Director of the International Olympic Committee (1983 to 1990).

In 1992, the practice-oriented functionary succeeded the visionary Willi Daume as German NOK president (until 2002) - and ended up experiencing one of the bitterest hours of his career. He lost to Klaus Steinbach in a competitive vote for re-election. "I am dissatisfied and feel unfairly treated," Tröger lamented deeply at the time. "Of course, this is not the exit I had imagined."

He earned a great reputation in the IOC. The Frankfurter Rundschaunewspaper once called him the "eternal Olympian". He was an IOC member from 1989 to 2009.

He also didn't mince words at the Rio Olympics when discussing a complete ban of Russia for systematic doping and the IOC's rejection of the ban. "It would be good if the IOC set an example on this issue. It's about the credibility of the sport," Tröger said at the time. In general, he did not give the IOC a good report card. "The Olympics are in crisis," he found on the occasion of his 90th birthday in February 2019.

Despite the IOC's 2020 reform agenda, people still believed that the Olympic Games were only about money and prestige, not about the interests of the organizers. That is why, he said, there is hardly any interest in the Games in cities of countries that would really be suitable. Instead the IOC can only deal with "hicks" who "don't have a clue and don't think Olympic at all".

This cannot be blamed on the feisty official himself, who found the honorary title "Mr. Olympia" appropriate. "I have given Olympia a lot - and Olympia has given me a lot," Tröger summed up. was subsequently made an honorary member. As Chef de Mission, he led the German Olympic team at eight Games from 1976 to 2002.

Since Tokyo 1964, Tröger has experienced 27 Olympic Games. The former basketball player was not only a connoisseur of world sports, but also a man of influence who did not keep his opinions to himself and polarized opinion. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), for example, he claimed that the merger of the NOK and the German Sports Confederation (DSB) was wrong and also the reason for the failure of the three Olympic bids that took place during this period.

As a mark of respect for him, the IOC says the Olympic flag will be flown at half-staff at its headquarters for three days.

Written by Heinz Peter Kreuzer

For general comments or questions,click here.

Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.