Basketball at exciting level 

Bob Elphinston from Australia has been elected new FIBA President for the 2006 – 2010 term of office during the FIBA World Congress. He succeeds Carl Men Ky Ching from Hong Kong, who headed the FIBA from 2002 to 2006.

The 64-year old native of Lithgow, Australia, was excited about this new challenge: "I am enormously proud to be elected as President of FIBA and to be only the third Australian ever to be President of an International Olympic Sports Federation."

"Basketball is at an exciting level as the other most played team sport in the world today and my role as President gives me the chance to directly assist a great sport grow even more."

Elphinston also sees a splendid future for the sport: "FIBA looks forward to an exciting Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, increased commercial opportunities and player development with the emphasis of further developing strong basketball in all 213 member federations."

"We look forward to the cooperation with Bob Elphinston", said FIBA Secretary General Patrick Baumann. "We are very glad to have a President with such a high reputation in the world of sports. We will certainly profit from his experience and expertise. At the same time I would like to thank our outgoing President Carl Men Ky Ching for his outstanding contribution to the growth of basketball in the past 4 years."

Bob Elphinston is recognised as one of the most respected sports administrators in the world, with a long involvement in Basketball since 1961 and international sport since 1991.

Bob was one of the founding directors of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) and managed the Australian Men's basketball team at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games. He has visited more than 35 countries with teams from Australia. He was the founding President of the Australian Basketball Coaches Association.

In 1991, Bob was appointed General Manager for the Sydney Olympics 2000 Bid Company, reporting directly to Chief Executive Rod McGeoch. His work was ultimately rewarded in 1993 when Sydney won the right to host the 2000 Olympic Games.

As SOCOG's General Manager- Sport, Bob was directly responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the 28 sports at the Olympic Games including the sports competition, the sports schedule, sport services, sport presentation, sport policy and operations, medical services, doping control, IOC relations and protocol, National Olympic Committees services and language services.

During his 10 years of Olympic involvement, Bob has developed a close working relationship with FIBA. In recognition of his significant contribution in bidding for and staging the "best Games ever", the IOC appointed him to the IOC Sports Program Commission and the IOC Evaluation Commission for the selection of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games hosting cities.

In October 2000, he was awarded the Olympic Order by the President of the IOC and has been honoured in Australia with an Order of Australia in Medal, together with life membership of Basketball Australia and Australia’s Sport Administrator of the year. In October 2006 Bob Elphinston was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame as an Associate Member in recognition of the significant contributions he had made in the sport of basketball and for the Olympic Games in Australia.

Bob Elphinston
FIBA President