CHENNAI: Convening meetings every month, putting together plans for sporting activities that would lead to sports development, safeguarding athletes and their rights, addressing rising doping menace in the country and helping athletes during transition after retirement were some of the focus areas of the Indian Olympic Association's Athletes Commission meeting on Thursday. If everything goes to plan, the commission will have their own space at the Olympic Bhawan in New Delhi.
The commission finally had a meeting after quite some time. Out of the 10, there were seven members — four in person and three online — who attended the meeting. The Commission's vice chairperson A Sharath Kamal, Om Prakash Karhana, Bhavani Devi and Shiva Keshavan were at the IOA headquarters in New Delhi. Joining them online were rower Bajrang Lal, hockey player Rani Rampal and PV Sindhu.
Continuity of discussions seemed to be one all members were keen to focus on. "We would want to conduct such meetings more regularly," said Sharath. "As of now, we will conduct every 30 days." The meeting was crucial in IOA's normalisation process.
The commission focussed on the rising menace of doping. "We have to address the issue and all the commission members have spoken about this at length and if need be, we can collaborate with the National Anti-Doping Agency to spread awareness," said IOA CEO Raghuram Iyer, who was instrumental in hosting the meeting. He said that the IOA would want to make the organisation athletes driven and athletes focussed and this is the first step towards that goal. As far as doping in India is concerned, all members in the panel agreed that something needs to be done earnestly. Country's top athletes felt there is an urgent need for education of not just athletes but also coaches.
In a significant development, the IOA is planning to give the commission space in the IOA Bhawan to operate from. "They should feel welcome to the IOA and they should have a dedicated space," is what Iyer felt.
Sharath said the meeting touched upon two other important topics — safeguarding athletes rights and well-being and helping them during career transition. He said that this would take some time but the commission would help in the development of an athlete's career pathway that would provide opportunities in coaching, administration, and other fields beyond sports.
Winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan said it was quite an interesting meeting. He felt that such an initiative will give athletes more voice. He felt the IOA can also have athletes' point of view with some many events and mega events the country is planning to host.
The commission, as reported by The New Indian Express, would also ensure robust athlete representation in the governance structure of all National Sports Federations (NSFs). They would request the NSFs to provide them with details of their Athletes Commission.
The commission also worked on modalities to bring in grants from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which provide $10,000 and $5,000 for their meetings.
This is another step towards normalisation and the IOA would slowly start requesting the IOC to release the IOC Solidarity Funding that was stopped last year due to infighting in the IOA.