Juan Antonio Samaranch was given a send-off resembling a state funeral in his native Barcelona Thursday, a day after the former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president died at the age of 89. King Juan Carlos and his family, current IOC President Jacques Rogge and high-profile figures from Spanish sport and politics were among the mourners. Rafael Nadal, the world's No. 3 tennis player, helped carry the coffin to the city cathedral. The casket, draped in the Olympic flag, had earlier been placed in a chapel and hundreds of people filed past to pay their respects to the man who brought the Olympic Games to the port city in 1992. “I came here above all to support the (Samaranch) family and show appreciation for everything he did for our sport,” Mallorca-born Nadal said. Samaranch was admitted to the Quiron clinic in Barcelona Sunday with acute heart problems and passed away Wednesday after suffering “cardio-respiratory failure”. After steering the Olympic movement through two turbulent decades, marked by political boycotts, bribery and drug scandals and a greater emphasis on commercialism, he was appointed honorary life president of the IOC when he stepped down as president in 2001. Samaranch will be buried at the cemetery on the Montjuic hill near the stadium that was used for the 1992 Games.
