每周外刊选读－Inside Lines: Juan reason why London owes thanks to Samaranch（Extract）

发布时间：2010-05-11

作者：华超超

来源于：昂立外语网站

前国际奥委会主席萨马兰奇上周逝世，我当初听到他的名字，是因为他当时对邓亚萍的赞赏和支持。身边的很多朋友也觉得他对中国人亲切而非常喜欢这个长得很有特色的老头。分享英国《独立报》的一篇关于萨马兰奇文章。

Inside Lines: Juan reason why London owes thanks to Samaranch（Extract）

By Alan Hubbard

Princess Anne disliked him intensely, but London has good reason to be grateful to the late Juan Antonio Samaranch. The former International Olympic Committee president, who died last week aged 89, was as much responsible for London getting the 2012 Games in Singapore four years ago as Seb Coe with his impassioned oratory or Tony Blair with his relentless glad-handing.

The wily old bird, who fought with Franco, always saw London as the perfect venue, and once Madrid was eliminated it was Samaranch who persuaded most members who had voted for Madrid to swing behind London. The Paris contingent were furious, convinced that not for the first time sport's imperious grandee had stabbed them in the back. When I first interviewed Your Excellency (as the former Spanish ambassador to Moscow liked to be addressed) in Room 309 of the five-star Palace Hotel in Lausanne, where he seemed to have permanent residence, he hinted that he saw Coe as a future IOC president. To him, Coe was the ideal Olympian. Samaranch admired him so much that he even tried to get him special dispensation to compete individually when Coe was controversially omitted from the British team at Seoul in 1988. But that was one IOC rule even he was unable to bend – and there were several that he did, much to IOC member Princess Anne's obvious displeasure.

一些背景介绍（黑线划出来的部分）：

1、Princess Anne: Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise,born 15 August 1950, is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.现任英女王唯一的女儿。

2、四年前，国际奥委会第117次全会在新加坡继续进行，伦敦通过4轮投票击败其它几个城市，获得2012年第30届夏季奥林匹克运动会的举办权。

3、这里Your Excellency 和former Spanish ambassor to Moscow都是指Samaranch。Samaranch曾担任过驻俄罗斯莫斯科的西班牙大使。这里作者称他为“Your Excellency”是因为Samaranch自己喜欢被这么称呼。

一些单词词组解释（黄色背景部分）：

glad－hand：过分或故作热烈的欢迎（通常指带有虚假的成分）

wily：狡猾的。（用wily old bird来形容Samaranch，哈哈，看过他的照片，是不是觉得他的长相首先还是有点符合的）

swing behing：这里指让那些原本给马德里投票的人转而支持伦敦获选。

contingent：代表团

sport's imperious grandee：指萨马兰奇。grandee原指那些位高权重的政要人物等。这里把Samaranch比作体育界的泰斗显贵。imperious原有“专横的”意思，我认为这里理解为“萨马兰奇在体育界是个说了算的大人物”比较合适。

stab sb in the back：从字面上理解，刺某人的背，可以猜测一下。对啦，就是暗箭伤人，背后暗害的意思。

IOC：记住这个国际奥委会的缩写哦，International Olympic Committee