Keba Mbaye, IOC Ethics Chairman, 82

(ATR) Sengalese judge Keba Mbaye has died at his home in Dakar, Senegal after a long illness. He retired as an IOC member in 2002, but remained chairman of the IOC Ethics Commission.

?We have lost a great man," said IOC President Jacques Rogge, speaking from Uganda where he is concluding a five-day trip to Africa.

Mbaye served from 1973 on the IOC, including a total of 16 years as a member of the Executive Board in four-year terms starting in 1988. He was twice elected as an IOC vice president. He was host of the IOC Executive Board when it met for the first time in Senegal in 2001.

He was chair of the IOC Juridical Commission until he retired in 2002, when he was named an honorary member of the IOC.

At the time of his death Mbaye was also president of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport, which administers the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"His innate sense of justice and his passion for sport and Olympism made Keba Mbaye a unanimously recognised and respected personality at the heart of the international sporting community," says a statement from CAS.

"Under his guidance, the CAS has experienced a remarkable development and has become year after year an institution of high standing the world over," said CAS.

Perhaps his most significant IOC leadership role came from 1989 to 1992, when he chaired the Apartheid and Olympism Commission which led to South Africa's return to the Olympic Family.

In professional life Mbaye was a lawyer and then a judge who served on the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

"Keba Mbaye was one of those men whose humanity and charisma mark you for life", said the IOC President

"Thanks to his extraordinary eloquence, he could communicate his love of Olympism and his unshakeable faith in humanity and its ability to build a better world. His devotion to the Olympic Movement and its values was unfailing," said Rogge.

IOC vice president Thomas Bach, who succeeded Mbaye as chair of the Juridical Commission calls Mbaye "a fatherly friend to me" and tells Around the Rings "his death is a big loss for Olympic sport".

"He taught me a lot and I worked in a confiding way with him on the Juridical Commission," says Bach who also served with Mbaye on other IOC panels.

Anita DeFrantz, IOC member in the U.S. who served with Mbaye on the EB and other commissions calls Judge Mbaye "a giant among us".

"From his small Senagalese village to the Halls of justice at the Hague, he carried with him the determination to provide justice in the world. The Olympic Movement was honored to have him as an IOC Member.

I shall miss his intellect, dignity and skill. He was a dear friend," DeFrantz tells ATR.