Editing Juan Antonio Samaranch (section)

==Business and political career==
[[File:World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 1987.jpg|thumb|Samaranch (middle) at the [[World Economic Forum]] Annual Meeting in 1987]]
After actively participating in the [[Spanish Civil War]], Samaranch studied commerce at [[IESE Business School]] in Barcelona. He had a short career as a sports journalist for ''La Prensa'', which ended in his dismissal in 1943 for criticising the supporters of [[Real Madrid C.F.]] after that club's 11–1 defeat of [[FC Barcelona]], and then joined his family's textile business. He joined the board of [[La Caixa]], Spain's largest savings bank, in 1984, and served as president of the board from 1987 to 1999. He remained as honorary president from his retirement in 1999 to his death.<ref name="ElPais">{{citation | title = La larga carrera de un hombre polifacético | url = http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/larga/carrera/hombre/polifacetico/elpepudep/20100421elpepudep_9/Tes | newspaper = El País | date = 21 April 2010 | access-date = 21 April 2010 | archive-date = 13 May 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110513114249/http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/larga/carrera/hombre/polifacetico/elpepudep/20100421elpepudep_9/Tes | url-status = live }}. {{in lang|es}}</ref>

Samaranch served on the municipal government of Barcelona, with responsibility for sports, from 1955 to 1962. He was a ''procurador'' (member of the lower house) of the [[Cortes Españolas]] during the last decade of the [[Francoist Spain|Franco regime]], from 1964 until the [[Spanish transition to democracy|restoration of democracy]] in 1977. From 1967 to 1971, he also served as "national delegate" (minister) for sports, and from 1973 to 1977 he was the president of the ''diputación'' (governing council) of the [[Province of Barcelona]]. He was appointed Spanish ambassador to the Soviet Union and Mongolia in 1977, immediately after the restoration of [[Diplomacy|diplomatic relations]] between the countries: this post helped him to gain the support of the [[Eastern Bloc|Soviet bloc]] countries in the election to the presidency of the IOC, held in Moscow in 1980.<ref name="ElPais"/>

He had been the ''[[Head of mission|chef de mission]]'' of the Spanish team at a number of Olympic events, before he was appointed Government Secretary for Sports by Spanish Head of State [[Francisco Franco]] in 1967. He also became the president of the Spanish National Olympic Committee and a member of the IOC. He was vice-president of the IOC from 1974 to 1978.