Former IOC president in Samaranch 'very serious condition' in hospital

MADRID -- Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch is in "very serious condition" in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Barcelona.

Quiron Hospital chief of internal medicine Rafael Esteban says the 89-year-old Spaniard is under observation for "acute coronary insufficiency."

Samaranch has been bothered by health problems in recent years, including 11 days in a Swiss hospital because of "extreme fatigue" in 2001 after returning from an IOC session in Moscow, where Jacques Rogge was elected as his successor.

Samaranch also visited a hospital in Monaco in September because of a slight reaction to fatigue, and spent two days in a hospital in Madrid in 2007 after a dizzy spell.