MADRID, 14 Apr. (SportsFinding) –
The Israeli journalist and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 1994, Alex Gilady, has died at the age of 79 as “pioneer of the modern Olympic Movement, as reported by the body itself in a statement on Thursday.
“The IOC expresses its deepest condolences to the family of Alex Gilady. As a mark of respect, the Olympic flag will fly at half-staff at the Olympic House in Lausanne for three days,” the organization said.
Gilady began his career as a journalist in Israel in 1964 and was a sportscaster (1968), Chief of Sports (1975), Special Operations (1977), Vice President (1981-1996), and Senior Vice President of NBC Sports, the former Olympic rights network. in United States. Gilady
His contribution to Olympic broadcasting was recognized by the IOC with his appointment in 1984 to the Radio and Television Commission (where he remained until 2015), and 10 years later (1994) with his election as a member of the IOC.
IOC President Thomas Bach said that with Gilady’s death, “a pioneer of the modern Olympic Movement” is lost. “He has always defended the Olympic values, often when sometimes the situation was not easy for him,” he stressed.
“We all appreciated his open personality and his frank way of speaking even if we did not always agree, because with Alex we always knew that he spoke from the heart. He was always a genuine person,” stressed Bach, who regretted losing a “friend” who “advised, inspired and supported in many ways.”
Bach confessed that it was Gilady who convinced him in 1996 to first run for an Executive Board seat. “Since then, he has always been by my side. Above all, he was a great man and a great friend,” he added.
As Vice President of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Gilady established excellent relationships with some of the key members of the Organizing Committee, which was key in finding solutions to the many issues that needed to be addressed, particularly around the unprecedented postponement of the Games.
Following his career as a second and third division soccer and basketball player, he went on to take on sports administration roles as Chairman of the Television Commission of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, now World Athletics) between 1985 and 2008 and President of the TV Council of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) between 2004 and 2019.
Gilady received seven Emmy Academy Awards for the 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, 2002 Salt Lake City, 2004 Athens, 2008 Beijing, and 2012 London Olympics; and an award for Best Journalistic Story with the theme “El Mar” in 1970.
He also won the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) award for producing President Sadat’s first visit to Jerusalem in 1977; the “Man of the Year Award” for becoming the first Israeli to broadcast from Egypt, also in 1977; and an All Electronic Media Award for producing the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel in 1979.