Olympic hope soars as Bach comes calling

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

Ahead of the high-profile 24-hour visit of International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach to India, the country’s sporting bureaucracy is working overtime to get some of the key proposals endorsed by the German strongman, including developing the NIS Centre in Patiala into a High-Performance Centre of Excellence.

Bach will be arriving in the capital late Sunday evening on April 26 to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday amid growing speculations that India may make its first bid to host the Olympic Games in 2024. Even if hosting the Olympics appears unlikely, observers say Modi may sanction a bid for further down the line during his likely discussion on the issue with Bach over high-tea meeting at his 7 Race Course Road residence.

There is a growing sense of optimism among the Indian sporting fraternity that the country’s bid to stage the world’s biggest sporting spectacle is long overdue and that it would be a huge boost to national prestige.

While the sports administrators are tight-lipped about Modi’s likely discussion with Bach on Olympic bid, it has been reliably learnt that the two dignitaries will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop India into a sporting powerhouse.

The IOC will extend all kind of financial, technical and scientific support to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to fuel the country’s Olympic movement.

The MoU will be signed between the Indian government, IOC and the IOA during Bach’s 45-minute meeting with Modi. Countries such as the USA, Britain, Germany, and Australia among others have such MoU with the IOC and the signing of one such agreement with the IOC will help in the overall development of Olympic sports in India.

The IOA has MoU with Olympic bodies of Hungary and Cuba which has immensely benefitted the Indian athletes in terms of coaching exchange programme and training-cum-competition trips.

The Sports Ministry has also worked out a proposal for Bach’s consideration to develop the NIS Centre in Patiala into a state-of-the-art High Performance Centre.

If Bach accepts the proposal, it would be first such centre in India with grounds for every Olympic discipline equipped with training and equipment support, sports medicine and rehabilitation centre, and education and coaching programmes.

Till date, India have two multi-sport training centres in NIS Patiala and Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, but there has not been a single High Performance Centre like the one at the University of Toronto, University of Birmingham or University of Ottawa.