Five candidates are lined up to take over from the 80-year-old Spaniard who has run the International Olympic Committee for 21 years but who retires on Monday when his successor will be chosen.
The election will not attract the media glare and widespread world reaction according to Friday's historic vote for Beijing, but to International Olympic Committee (IOC) members it is just as vital.
Two of the main presidential hopefuls, Belgian surgeon Jacques Rogge and Canadian lawyer Dick Pound took every opportunity to exude charm, confidence and competence in a last-minute quest for votes.
The post is, after all, one of the most attractive jobs on the planet.
In addition to organising the Games, the president travels around the world mixing with heads of state as a roving ambassador for sport.
Now that Samaranch has decided to give up the job as he heads towards his 81st birthday on Tuesday, there has been a scramble to succeed him.
The new president will shape the next eight years of the IOC as the body attempts to reform itself after the Salt Lake City bribery scandal in 1999, the biggest corruption affair in the history of the Olympic movement.
There are three heavyweight candidates Rogge, Pound and South Korean politician Kim Un-yong and they could hardly have more contrasting personalities.
The other two candidates, former U.S. Olympic rower Anita DeFrantz, the only woman in the contest, and Hungarian diplomat Pal Schmitt, are not expected to make a great impact in the vote of all IOC members.
FAVOURITE
Rogge, 59, is the favourite to win but he faces a fierce challenge from Kim with Pound, the IOC marketing chief, expected to finish third.
Rogge is known in the IOC as a problem solver and diplomat who can woo IOC members with his charm and ability to speak a handful of tongues with ease including the official IOC languages English and French. He also speaks fluent Spanish, a huge advantage in communicating with South American members.
Unlike Samaranch, who has a reputation for ruling the IOC with an iron fist, the Belgian surgeon is known as a consensus politician who has proved himself by coordinating last year's successful Sydney Olympics and also guiding the IOC through the troubled preparations for the next Summer Games in Athens.
His main problem with be persuading members that he is tough enough for the job - and holding off Kim, a former taekwondo competitor who is a formidable opponent.
The former United Nations General Assembly delegate is older at 70 but he has a strong power base as president of the General Association of Sports Federations (GAISF) since 1986.
The South Korean is handicapped by the Salt Lake scandal in which he received a "most serious warning" by the IOC's ad-hoc commission - headed by his rival Pound - which investigated breaches in rules on accepting gifts from the U.S. city when it bid successfully for the 2002 Winter Games.
The commission found a Salt Lake bid official had arranged to pay at least part of the salary of Kim's son when he worked for a U.S. company. Kim denied all knowledge of the arrangement and the commission said it could not prove otherwise.
Pound's role as head of the commission could lose him votes since some members were sad to see 10 of their colleagues being forced out of the organisation.
The former Olympic swimmer, a finalist in the 100 metres freestyle at the 1960 Rome Games, has a reputation as a tough negotiator, having struck the billion-dollar deals with the television networks and blue chip sponsors who back the Games.
Reuters
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