Baumann Treated Quickly, Tributes Grow

(ATR) IOC member Patrick Baumann was treated as quickly as possible after his collapse October 13, says the chief of emergency services in Buenos Aires.

Baumann, 51, was at the Urban Park of the Youth Olympic Games early Saturday evening when he suffered a heart attack while sitting in the grandstand where the 3 x 3 basketball tournament is being held.

Alberto Crescenti, head of the Emergency Medical Care System known by the acronym SAME, tells newspaper La Nacion that Baumann received care from first responders within minutes of collapsing.

He tells the paper that there was no delay in his treatment, despite comments from a nearby eyewitness that it may have taken five minutes before a doctor was able to care for Baumann.

Crescenti says Baumann suffered an "acute myocardial infarction" and received defibrillation that was as powerful as a lightning strike to revive the heart.

Crescenti says Baumann’s heart resumed activity before he was transported by ambulance to a hospital. He was unable to be revived and was pronounced dead about an hour later at the Argerich Hospital.

The body of Baumann, a Swiss citizen, is believed to be in the process of being returned to his family. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, daughter, Bianca and son, Paul.

Around the Rings is told that the family and the IOC are in discussions regarding memorial services.

Tributes from Spanish Colleagues

Among the comments from colleagues of Baumann received by Around the Rings, two of his colleagues from Spain expressed their sorrow and loss.

"The disappearance of Patrick is a tremendous blow to the modern Olympic Movement," writes IOC VP Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. and his wife Cristina.

"Patrick was a pillar of the current architecture of the Olympic movement, with great responsibilities on many fronts, from basketball, the international federations, to the coordination of the Olympic Games of Los Angeles in 2028, going through to the organization of the Youth Games of Winter in 2020 in Lausanne.

"But more importantly, a family man and real friend,always close and attentive to reach out to anyone who needs it," says Samaranch.

International Canoe Federation President José Perurena says he is shocked by the death of Baumann.

"We were all together. I had been with him for a few hours and he was in a totally normal situation," says Perurena, IOC member in Spain.

"I have worked very closely with Baumann, as when I was elected president of GAISF. I am a member of the Executive and I have worked with him. In the Executive of ASOIF also working together. We have done many projects together, for example, [his] defending the 3x3 basketball and me the canoe slalom event.

"I knew him for a very long time. Theease he had to speak in any language. He spoke perfect Spanish, which meant that we had fluid encounters. It is a loss impossible to replace at this time," says the canoe federation chief.

Big Loss Says Paris 2024 President

Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, does not minimize the death of Patrick Baumann.

"We lose someone very big," says the IOC member and Olympian in canoe.

Baumann chaired the IOC Evaluation Commission of the Paris 2024 candidacy and was the vice chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2024 Games.

"As usual," is how Estanguet described his final encounters with Baumann in Buenos Aires last week.

"He had humor, he was available ... We exchanged a lot on the sidelines of the IOC session because we presented at the same time, him Lausanne (Winter Youth Olympic Games 2020) and me Paris.

"Since becoming an IOC member (in 2013, coincidently in Buenos Aires) I have come to know him. We shared four years at the World Anti-Doping Agency.

"For me, it was super inspiring to know him. He had an image that was good for international sports because he was both charismatic and at the same time very open, very approachable, modern in his conception of sport.

"During the candidacy, he had good advice on our balance between sport and politics. It was not easy, we had many interlocutors, many actors, he was there to help me to advise me, to encourage me to keep the athletes at the heart of the project," says Estanguet.

Reported by Ed Hula.