In this Sept. 24, 1981 file photo Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee at the 11th Olympic Congress in Baden-Baden, West Germany. Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch died Wednesday April 21, 2010 according to . He was 89. The Quiron Hospital in Barcelona says Samaranch died after being admitted with heart problems.

Appointed honorary life president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) when he stepped down as president in 2001, Samaranch was admitted to the Quiron clinic in his native Barcelona on Sunday with acute heart problems and passed away at 1325 local time (1125 GMT) on Wednesday.
He had died as a result of "cardio-respiratory failure" hospital doctor Rafael Esteban said in a statement.
"I cannot find the words to express the distress of the Olympic Family," IOC president Jacques Rogge said.
"We have lost a great man, a mentor and a friend who dedicated his long and fulfilled life to Olympism."
Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe, chairman of the 2012 London Olympics organising committee, said he had been deprived of a friend and the world had lost an inspirational man.
"A man that challenged us all to fight for sport, its primacy and its autonomy, a fight he led fearlessly from the front creating an extraordinary sporting movement that reaches millions of people around the world," Coe said.
"He was quite simply the most intuitive leader I have ever met."