CHENNAI: The Indian Olympic Association is slowly getting warmed-up for its election. Days after the IOA named the Returning Officer — Sanjay K Srivastava, a former Election Commissioner of Delhi and Chandigarh — the names of Athletes Commission, who would be eligible to contest elections, have been finalized. Soon, after the 80 Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOMs), too were finalized and updated on the IOA website. Some prominent names have applied and it would be interesting to see who would emerge as the eight SOMs after the election on November 9. The eight will have voting rights and would be eligible to contest IOA elections as well. Last edition, an SOM — PT Usha — went on to become the IOA president. Out of the eight two will be part of the all important Executive Council of 15.
Apart from Usha, Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, Beijing bronze medallist Vijender Singh, London Olympic medalists Gagan Narang, Yogeshwar Dutt and Saina Nehwal have been part of the approved SOM roster. Former World Championships medallist Anju Bobby George, former Athletics Federation of India president Adille Sumariwalla, archer Dola Banerjee too would be contesting the election. There are 10 names in the reserves in each category.
Interestingly, there are a couple of athletes with tainted pasts as well. In case of gymnast Dipa Karmakar, she was forced on the sidelines after she was slapped with a 21-month suspension for taking banned substance while in another athlete’s case, there was a lot of debate on technical grounds. The IOA’s rules do not clarify if athlete with doping record can be considered as SOM. However, under the declaration (SCHEDULE B – Disqualification and Integrity Disclosure) for athletes, one part says: “I have not been declared ineligible, suspended, or disqualified under the applicable antidoping rules of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and /or National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA)”. In the case of Athletes Commission eligibility criteria, the rule is more specific and says: “9.2.4. Have never been sanctioned for violation under the World Anti-Doping Code, the National Anti-Doping Act, 2022 or breach of any applicable integrity regulation(s).”
Athletics tops SOMs list
Athletics once again seem to head the list of candidates in the SOMs with at least 13 names in men and 14 in female. Though not a guarantee in case of election those from athletics could have an advantage over other sports. There are three shooters among men — national coach Samaresh Jung apart from Bindra and Narang, while there is only one shooter in women’s side — Suma Shirur. There are four wushu players in the women’s section. In hockey, Sardar Singh, Shivendra Singh and Surinder Singh Shokar are on the list, while in women’s Rani Rampal, S Omanakumari and Navdeep Kaur are included.
There are a couple of points that seem interesting. The Athletes Commission names — 34 of them from 17 National Sports Federations — were finalized and would be eligible to elect 10 (five male and five female) members. According to the IOA rules, out of the 10, six should have “participated in at least one of the last three (3) editions of the Olympic Games”, with equal representation of male and female athletes. Going by the list, a new set of Athletes Commission representatives are expected in the Executive Council. The two who were part of the EC, MC Mary Kom and A Sharath Kamal are not even part of the AC roster. Two representatives of the commission need to be elected as their representative in the EC. Last date of nomination is on October 21. Multiple Olympic and worlds medallist PV Sindhu, Tokyo Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu, Paris Olympic medallist Aman Sehrawat, double Asian Games gold medallist Neeru Dhanda are among the names on the list.
