Riccardo Fraccari

Riccardo Fraccari was a sports administrator, especially in the world of baseball and softball. Fluent in English, French, and Spanish, Fraccari was a professor of organic chemistry and also studied law. In 2009 he was elected President of the International Baseball Federation (IBF), succeeding American Harvey Schiller. Immediately after the election, Fraccari began negotiations to merge the IBF with the International Softball Federation, forming the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in October 2012 with the headquarters in Lausanne, uniting the two sports in their bid to return to the Olympic Games, which was realized in August 2016 when the IOC voted to reinstate baseball and softball as Olympic sports for the Tokyo 2020 Games.

From 2001-16 Fraccari was President of FIBS (Italian Baseball and Softball Federation). He was a long-time member of the Italian Olympic Committee Council and was appointed to the Executive Board in August 2018. He received the Knight of Merit of the Italian Republic and the Gold Star of Italian Sport Merit from the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).