Obituary: Steve Parry

He died in hospital in Hemel Hempstead, near his home north of London, on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, having attended the previous 10 Summer Games.

Parry joined Reuters Sports Desk in London in 1966 and covered his first Olympics in Mexico City in 1968.

An incisive and knowledgeable reporter, calm under pressure, Parry took on the athletics beat at the 1972 Munich Games and made the number one Olympic sport his own for a decade.

He covered track and field at the next two Games, never wasting a word in fluent and speedy copy, and remained close to the sport after he moved up in Reuters.

Appointed sports news editor in 1977, Parry was promoted to the job of sports editor at Reuters in 1982 and ran the operation with imagination, assurance and great expertise.

He expanded its role, appointing the first Reuters sports correspondents based abroad, one in Paris and one in Bonn, in 1984.

Firm and clear-sighted in his direction of the sports operation, he was benignly tolerant of his Reuters “band on the run” at Olympics around the world.

Outside work, he was an accomplished amateur actor and made the occasional fleeting television appearance after gaining his card as a member of the actors' union Equity.

After retiring from Reuters following the 2000 Sydney Games, Parry became a consultant for the IOC. He later became a media adviser for London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics and then a press operations consultant for the London Games organisers.

Parry was advising both the IOC and London until his untimely death. He was recently advised by his doctor that his health was not up to the rigours of one more Olympic adventure in Beijing.

Reuters' current sports editor Paul Radford, Parry’s former deputy and a close personal friend, said: “We at Reuters are devastated by the news. Steve was one of the finest journalists Reuters ever had and one of the greatest men I ever knew.

“He was one of the most revered and respected personalities in the world of sports journalism and a monumental figure in the Olympic movement.”

Parry is survived by his wife, Di, and their daughter, and two sons from an earlier marriage. ■