Chiulli has been unanimously elected president of SportAccord at the organisation’s general assembly in Gold Coast taking over from Francesco Ricci Bitti. He will also replace Patrick Baumann, who died suddenly during last year’s Youth Olympics, as president of the Global Association of International Sports Federations.

Raffaele Chiulli said he was proud to have been chosen to lead SportAccord. “Sport has never been more relevant as a means of bringing people together around the values of inspiration, unity and respect. I am very excited by the scope for us to do more really valuable work in the future,” he said.