Olympics-Samaranch proposes winter Games for extreme heat nations

By Fernando Kallas

MADRID (Reuters) - Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior, a contender in the race to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has outlined his vision for the organisation, emphasising that the IOC should remain neutral in political matters.

Samaranch said it was not the IOC's job to take sides in such issues.

"We are not about we cannot unfortunately generate peace. We cannot unfortunately make the wars stop. But we have, as our main goal, to demonstrate to the world that another way is possible," Samaranch told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

"That means we cannot take sides and we have to maintain the unity of the movement in not taking sides in all the raging conflicts in the world.

"If we start taking parts as an organisation saying 'this country's human rights record I don't like' or 'this other country is guilty in this war', we will disappear and the Olympic Games will disappear with the good that it does."

In a nod to the evolving global climate, Samaranch suggested that future Olympic Games could be held during the winter months, similar to how the 2022 FIFA World Cup was hosted in Qatar. This, he said, would allow countries with extreme summer temperatures to participate without the challenges posed by heat.

"If we are truly an universal organisation and we better be, otherwise we would be extinct. We have to make sure that we make the games available to everybody in the world, all regions in the world," Samaranch said.

"It is not acceptable that we say because of history or tradition that we are gonna exclude regions of the world from the possibility of organising the Olympic Games.

"It is not them that will have to change their climate, it will be us that will have to change whatever is necessary to be truly universal."

Samaranch, the son of former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, addressed questions about his father’s legacy, asserting that he has never relied on his family name to advance his career.

"(Being my father's son) is not an advantage. I've never used his influence during the 23 years of my membership in the IOC and certainly will not for the six months to come, I have never planned to make that play a role or be an advantage," Samaranch said.

"I would never use it, but I don't think it ever helped. However, I am not going to I don't think it's going to hurt me either."

While recognising the growing importance of technology and advocating the inclusion of urban and e-sports to the Olympic movement, Samaranch underscored that experience remains the key qualification for leading the IOC.

"I am a candidate because I think I have a lot to offer to the Olympic movement and the IOC that today are a very extraordinarily complex and important machine," Samaranch said.

"It's a very complex job that requires a lot of experience. A lot of criteria. You need to have been there many years. And I have I've reached a moment in my life in an age that I have, I can dedicate my time to Olympic movement."

(Reporting by Fernando Kallas, editing by Ed Osmond)