Respected Australian sports official Bob Elphinston has been elected President of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), for the 2006-2010 term of office, at the FIBA World Congress held in Tokyo during the World Championships.

Elphinston, who was formerly Secretary General of the Australian Olympic Committee 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," Elphinston said.

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

"We are currently experiencing our best ever FIBA World Championship here in Japan, with sell out crowds, television coverage in some 155 countries and strong performances from all 5 continents of the world.

“I am grateful to the 21 member federations of FIBA Oceania and Basketball Australia for supporting my election as FIBA president”, added Elphinston, who was president of FIBA Oceania for the past four years.

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.

He was one of the founding directors of the 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 and was the founding President of the Australian Basketball Coaches Association.

In 1991 he 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, he 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, Elphinston 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.

Since retiring from the position of AOC Secretary General on December 31 2004 he has been employed as Sports Consultant to the Organising Committee of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG), in the process becoming the first foreign expert that the Ministry of Sports of BOCOG appointed in the lead-up to the Games.

Basketball Australia President, John Maddock said the appointment of an Australian to the pre-eminent position in FIBA was an historic one.

“This is the first time an Australian has ever served in the role of President of FIBA and is a mark of great respect for both Bob and Australian basketball,” said Maddock .

“Bob has over 40 years of experience in the game under his belt and an involvement with sports administration that dates back to 1961. He will undoubtedly prove to be a fantastic leader for the game of basketball and Basketball Australia extends its sincerest congratulations.”

Basketball Australia