Jacques Rogge - Life and Career

Life and Career

Born in Ghent, Belgium, under the Nazi-occupation, Rogge is by profession an orthopedic surgeon and was educated at the University of Ghent. Rogge competed in yachting in the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, and played on the Belgian national rugby union team. In yachting (Finn-class) he won the world championships once and took second place twice, and was crowned Belgian champion sixteen times. He also won the Yachting World Cadet Trophy and took part in the regatta Ton Cup.

Rogge served as President of the Belgian Olympic Committee from 1989 to 1992, and as President of the European Olympic Committees from 1989 to 2001. He became a member of the IOC in 1991 and joined its Executive Board in 1998. He was knighted in 1992, and in 2002 made a Count in the Belgian nobility by King Albert II.

In his free time, Rogge is known to admire modern art and is an avid reader of historical and scientific literature. He is married to Anne; they have two adult children. His son Philippe was the delegation leader of the Belgian Olympic Committee for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Read more about this topic:  Jacques Rogge

Famous quotes containing the words life and/or career:

    What should we think of the shepherd’s life if his flocks always wandered to higher pastures than his thoughts?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.
    Lawrence Kutner (20th century)