Mario Vazquez Raña, former UPI owner and IOC member, dead at 82

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Mario Vazquez Raña, former owner of United Press International and member of the International Olympic Committee, died Sunday.

He died in his Mexico City home from acute respiratory distress due to cancer. He was 82.

Vazquez Raña was a president of the Mexican Olympic Commission from 1974 to 2001 and a member of the International Olympic Committee from 2000 to 2012. His favorite sport was shooting.

"Mario Vázquez Raña dedicated a great part of his life to Olympic sport" IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement. "He had outstanding merit within the Olympic Movement and we will always remember him as a great Olympic leader. The Olympic flag at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne will be flown at half-mast in his honor."

Vazquez Raña owned dozens of newspapers in his career. In 1986, he bought United Press International for $40 million and owned the company for two years.

"If UPI becomes mine, please do not consider it mine but consider that it belongs to all of you," he told a gathering of editors and publishers from North and South America in 1986. "In my mind, UPI's prestige comes first and only later does mine figure."