Bob Elphinston

The 64-year old native of Lithgow, Australia, was only the third Australian ever to be President of an International Olympic Sports Federation.

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.

In addition, due to his vast experience, he is Sports Consultant to the Organizing Committees of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG) in Beijing, P.R. of China and the London Olympic Games 2012 (LOCOG) and also consults the International Olympic Committee.
 
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.