Athletes Commission of the IOA formed

Some members of the IOA Athletes Commission Shiva Keshavan, P.V. Sindhu, Sharath Kamal and Gagan Narang in New Delhi on Monday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A bunch of 10 Olympians, including Olympic medallists P.V. Sindhu, Gagan Narang, Mary Kom and Mirabai Chanu, were elected unopposed as members of the Athletes Commission of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) at the Nehru Stadium here on Monday.

With 36 national federations nominating one male and one female athlete as the electoral college, there were 42 nominations for election to the 10 slots.

The Returning Officer Umesh Sinha eventually had only 10 names as the rest withdrew their nominations within the specified time.

These 10 athletes will choose a Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson from among themselves on Tuesday.

Former World and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and former hockey captain Sardara Singh will also be part of the athletes commission as ex-officio members, for being members of the athletes commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) respectively.

The next main task of the athletes commission will be to choose eight sportspersons of outstanding merit (SOM) for which the applications will close at 4 p.m. on November 15.

The eight SOMs along with the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the athletes commission will be part of the electoral college of the IOA election scheduled to be held on December 10.

The Executive Council of the IOA, as per its amended constitution, will have a president, a senior vice-president, two vice- presidents, a treasurer, two joint secretaries, six executive council members including one male and one female sportspersons of outstanding merit, and two more representatives from the athletes commission.

IOC member Nita Ambani will be an ex-officio member of the Executive Council with a right to vote.

The Athletes commission of the IOA: Men: Om Prakash Karhana, Shiva Keshavan, Gagan Narang, Bajrang Lal, Sharath Kamal.

Women: P.V. Sindhu, Mary Kom, Bhavani Devi, Ran Rampal, Mirabai Chanu.