Canadian Olympic Committee Saddened by the Passing of VANOC Chairman Jack Poole
Champion of the Olympic Movement Overcome by Cancer
The Canadian Olympic Committee wishes to extend its deepest condolences following the passing of Jack Poole, Chairman of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), who died peacefully on October 23rd, 2009 of pancreatic cancer.
“I have had the opportunity of knowing Jack since the time of his first involvement with what was then the Bid of Vancouver and Whistler to host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games,��� said Michael Chambers, COC President. “Throughout Jack’s involvement with the Bid, and since the birth of the Organizing Committee of the Games in 2003, Jack’s leadership has inspired us all. The character he has displayed, in those functions and latterly in his battle with pancreatic cancer, has reflected all of the noble principles of Olympism. He will be missed, and forever fondly remembered.”
Poole, 76, a prominent Vancouver businessman, philanthropist, and champion of the Olympic Movement, who played a key role in bringing the Olympic Winter Games to Vancouver as Chairman and CEO of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, had twice before beaten the deadly disease. It appeared 20 years ago in his prostate, and two years ago in his pancreas, before it returned this summer.
“The Olympic Family and the Canadian Sport Movement have lost a great friend and leader with the passing of Jack Poole,” said Marcel Aubut, president-elect of the COC. “While he will be dearly missed, his contribution to Canadian sport will live on forever through the legacies of the 2010 Winter Games. What Calgary was to this generation of athletes, Vancouver will be to the next.”
“The Olympic Movement has lost a true champion,” said COC CEO and Secretary General Chris Rudge. “Not only was Jack the driving force behind bringing the Games to Vancouver and building the organization that will deliver an inspiring experience to Canada and the world, Jack also recognized early in the process that the success of the Canadian Team was at the heart of the Games. His leadership behind VANOC’s early support of the Own The Podium project will be reflected in every podium appearance our athletes make next February. He will be proud.”
“I am very sorry to hear (about Jack) and had really hoped he would still be with us during the Games, to see the coming to fruition of his last great project,” said Richard W. Pound, COC Board Member and IOC representative in Canada. “I think the Games will nevertheless bear his stamp and he will always be identified with their successful delivery, as he was with winning them in the first place. I am sure that the whole community and VANOC in particular will work even harder to make Jack proud.”
A full biography and photo of Jack Poole is available at www.vancouver2010.com.
