Flash! Leader of the Montreal World Championships Bid Dies, Apparently a Suicide

By Phillip Whitten

MONTREAL, February 2. YVON DesRochers, 59, the man who led Montreal's ultimately unsuccessful bid to host the 2005 World Swimming Championships was found dead in his parked car today, according to police sources. Police believe he was a suicide.

Officially, the police are saying only that they are investigating the death of a man in his 50s as a suicide, refusing to identify him. However, Radio-Canada, quoting police sources, said DesRochers was found dead in his car, which was parked in a Montreal street, and had apparently shot himself.

The death of DesRochers, Executive Vice President and Director General of the Organizing Committee, was announced by committee vice president Marc Belanger in a statement tonight. The statement did not give a cause of death.

On January 19, climaxing weeks of political maneuvering, FINA, swimming's international governing body, pulled the championships from Montreal after the Organizing Committee repeatedly failed to raise enough money, sell enough sponsorships or sell even a small fraction of tickets the committee had guaranteed FINA it would sell.

FINA has not yet announced a replacement city for Montreal, but Athens, Berlin and Moscow are thought to be the front-runners.

Linda Cuthbert, the president of the Aquatic Federation of Canada, said, "I just learned of it so I'm kind of in shock and very sad."

DesRochers is survived by a wife and two children.

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