Canadian Dick Pound's IOC tenure coming to close with retirement at age 80

Dick Pound held almost every International Olympic Committee job there was except president during his 44 years as a member.

Having reached his mandatory retirement age of 80 in March, the Canadian dubbed "our dean" by current IOC president Thomas Bach will step down.

Pound continues as an honorary member after transforming the Olympic landscape in the arenas of television and marketing rights, and anti-doping.

His involvement in the Olympic movement spans over 60 years starting in 1960, when the swimmer from St. Catharines, Ont., competed in Rome's Summer Games while a law student at McGill.

Pound joined the IOC in 1978. The organization's longest-serving member will exit at the end of 2022 when he assumes honorary status.

"After that, you don't have a vote anymore. You're invited to meetings and to Olympic Games, but you don't really have active duties other than to dispense wise advice that nobody listens to," Pound told The Canadian Press with a chuckle.

IOC members elected after 1999 must retire at age 70.

Pound served on the IOC's executive board, twice as a vice-president, for 18 years starting in 1983.

He was routinely appointed the fixer of the IOC's internal and external problems, and was thus a driver of reform, particularly during the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch from 1980 to 2001.

"He had self-confidence and he was prepared to delegate," Pound said. "He said 'listen, just tell me what's going on. Even if nothing's going on, call me once in awhile and tell me that nothing's going on.'

"I work fairly quickly. Most lawyers look at a blank page and they're paralyzed. If you give them a draft contract they can make it better, but if you give them a blank sheet of paper, it's very hard for them to push the