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IOC member Baumann elected president of SportAccord group

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) Swiss IOC member Patrick Baumann has been elected president of SportAccord, an umbrella group of more than 90 Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations.

Baumann, the secretary general of basketball world body FIBA, defeated Russia's Anna Arzhanova 55-25 in Friday's vote. Arzhanova heads the World Underwater Federation.

The vote came a year after SportAcccord's previous president, Marius Vizer, attacked the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach.

Baumann acknowledges his challenge is ''trying to build an atmosphere where people are not thinking only of division, but what can bring us all together.''

He says SportAccord can serve as ''the voice of sport.''

The vote closed a weeklong conference that will be held next year in Aarhus, Denmark.

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