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Born in Ghent, Jacques Rogge is an orthopaedic surgeon by profession. Rogge was educated at the University of Ghent. He competed in yachting in the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, and played on the Belgian national rugby union team. Rogge served as president of the Belgian Olympic Committee from 1989 to 1992, and as president of the European Olympic Committees from 1989 to 2001. He became a member of the IOC in 1991 and joined its Executive Board in 1998. He was knighted, and later elevated to Count, by King Albert II of Belgium. In his free time, Rogge is known to admire modern art and is an avid reader of historical and scientific literature.
Rogge was elected as the eighth president of the IOC on 16 July 2001 at the 112th IOC Session in Moscow as the successor to Juan Antonio Samaranch, who had led the IOC since 1980.