mar.17.2008

Monday 17 March is a big day for the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee(TTOC).The TTOC will host Dr Jacques Rogge ,The International Olympic Committee(IOC) president for four hours .Rogge arrives in Trinidad at 2.30pm .

The IOC president will pay a courtesy call(3.30pm) on his Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards,President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

The TTOC will host a reception(4 pm) for Dr.Rogge at the Hyatt Regency Hotel,Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs,The Honourable Gary Hunt will attend.

The IOC president will be accompanied by IOC member,Mario Vazquez Rana,president of the Association of National Olympic Committees(ANOC) and Pan American Sport Organisation(PASO).

Rogge,a Belgian, was elected IOC president in 2001.

An orthopedic surgeon by profession. He competed in yachting in the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, and played on the Belgian national rugby union team.

His term began at a difficult time for the IOC,as the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games bribery scandal was very much in the headlines and he was stepping into the shoes of Juan Antonio Samaranch.

At the 2002 winter Olympic games in Salt Lake city he became the first IOC president to stay in the Olympic Village.

He made it clear early in his mandate that he would have zero tolerance for unethical behavior .He has advocated for a review of the Olympic programme and has openly voiced his view that the games is too big and complex and that he would like Africa and Latin America to be able to host an Olympic games.

Rogge's determination for the Olympics to appeal to youth has been a rallying call in his seven-year presidency. His long-held ambition for a young people's Games will be realised with the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010. Rogge's mild manner and natural diplomacy masks a steely determination.In 1980, the former Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and President Jimmy Carter called for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Belgium intended to follow suit as a NATO ally. However, as the leader of his country's Olympic team, Rogge believed that politics should be kept separate from sport.He insisted that Belgium compete. He was called before his government to explain his stance, and public funding for the team was denied. Still, Rogge held his ground, and the Belgian Olympic team traveled to Moscow.

His leadership and people management ability stood out during his chairmanship of the IOC Coordinating Commission for the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympic Games.