FIBA have announced the sudden death of Patrick Baumann, FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.
Baumann died of a heart attack during the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Buenos Aires, Argentina despite receiving immediate treatment on Sunday.
He served FIBA as Secretary General for 16 years and became a member of the IOC in 2007.
FIBA President Horacio Muratore said:”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,” as quoted on FIBA.Basketball.
The 51 year old former player, coach and referee first joined FIBA as a lawyer in 1994 and was appointed FIBA Deputy Secretary General in 1995.
In 2002, he was unanimously appointed FIBA Secretary General by the FIBA Central Board. As such, he became only the third FIBA Secretary General, after Dr. William Jones and Borislav Stankovic.
Mr Baumann officially started his term of office in 2003, a position he held until his death.
To honour the memory of Baumann, the IOC President, Thomas Bach 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.
Meanwhile, NBBF President Musa Kida has also expressed shock on Baumann’s demise.
“His last correspondence with the NBBF was in September when he sent a letter to congratulate us as the first country to qualify for the 2019 FIBA Men’s World Cup as he looked forward to seeing us in China.”
Kida said the death should be a wake up call for all basketball stakeholders in Nigeria to give their all in the service to humanity and basketball development because “tomorrow is not assured”.
The Swiss survived by his wife and two children.
