By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann died at age 51 due to a heart attack.
Patrick Baumann, a Swiss national, first joined FIBA as a lawyer in 1994 and was appointed as FIBA Deputy Secretary General in 1995.
In 2002, Baumann was unanimously appointed by the FIBA Central Board as FIBA Secretary General. He maintained this role until his death. He had an impressive educational background consisting of an MBA from the Business School of the University of Chicago, a Masters in Sports Administration Management (MEMOS) from the University of Lyon in France and a law degree from the University of Lausanne.
Baumann became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 2007. He participated as a member of the IOC Evaluation Commissions for the Olympic Games 2008 and 2020 and of the Coordination Commission for the 2012 Olympic Games. He is also a member of various other IOC Commissions.
Baumann was appointed to the International Advisory Board of the World Academy of Sport in 2009. He was a member of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) since 2010 and was elected as a Council member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. He was also a member of the Foundation Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2013 and President of the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee.
In April 2016, Baumann was elected President of SportAccord.
He has been a basketball player, coach, and referee in Switzerland and Italy.
The current operations of FIBA will be taken care of by the Presidency and the Management Team.
FIBA President Horacio Muratore said: “On behalf of the entire FIBA family, I wish to express our deepest sympathies and pass on our condolences to Patrick’s wife Patricia, their family and loved ones. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this very difficult time.
“Patrick was a lot more than FIBA’s Secretary General and an IOC member. He was a very close friend of mine as well as to countless people in the basketball family and the wider sport community.
“Under his leadership, FIBA moved forward by leaps and bounds, with the organization modernizing itself to the extent of becoming a model which fellow International Federations followed.
“Patrick was at the forefront of FIBA making radical changes to its governance structure, successfully building and moving into its own state-of-the-art Headquarters outside of Geneva as well as launching 3×3, its urban discipline which became a part of basketball’s program at the Olympics. He was also instrumental in the process of ‘ONE FIBA’, the coming together of all of FIBA’s Regional Offices into one corporate group, with everyone looking and heading in the same direction for the best interests of our beloved sport. Last but not least, he led the way in the creation and implementation of FIBA’s New Competition System.
“For all of this and for so much more, FIBA is forever indebted to Patrick. Without doubt we would not be where we are today were it not for everything that he did. His unwavering commitment, tireless work ethic and pure passion for basketball mean he will forever have his place in FIBA’s history.”
IOC President Thomas Bach said: “This is a great shock which has hit us all very hard. We can hardly believe this terrible news. Particularly since, even today, we have seen him working hard, as we always knew him, for the sport he loved. We lose a young and sympathetic leader full of hope who was standing for the future of sport. Our thoughts are with his wife, his children and his family.”
To honor the memory of Mr Baumann, the IOC President asked for the Olympic flag to be flown at half-mast at the IOC Headquarters and at the IOC Headquarters at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires for three days. The IOC will also hold a memorial in the Youth Olympic Village.