NEW DELHI: The legendary PT Usha, who since her retirement from athletics has been running a coaching academy, was on Saturday elected as the first woman president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
The elevation of 58-year-old Usha to the top post in the IOA was always a formality as she and all the key candidates from her panel, which were backed by the Union government, were ultimately declared elected unopposed.
The multiple Asian Games Gold medallist and fourth place finisher in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics 400m hurdles final was “unanimpusly” elected alongside senior vice-president Ajay H Patel, vice-president Gagan Narang, joint secretary (and All India Football Federation president) Kalyan Chaubey and treasurer Sahdev Yadav.
“I am very happy today as there are many sportspersons in the executive committee,” Usha said. “I have lived 13 years of my life without sports. After that I have been involved in sports as an athlete, as a coach and an administrator. I never thought that one day I would become the IOA chief or a Member of Parliament. It is all because of sports.”
“Me and my team with collective effort will do our best for the betterment of sports,” she added, and left Chaubey to confront the tough questions.
Pertinently, it was Chaubey who took most of the questions on behalf of the committee and said the IOA would try to resolve issues that have been plaguing the body. He also said that the EC meeting will be convened soon and one agenda will be the appointment of the chief executive officer, a new post created as per the amended constitution. The EC meeting is expected to be conducted soon.
Usha’s first official day at work started with controversy when questions were raised during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) before the voting. The netball association’s Suman Kaushik, who was in the contest for the joint secretary’s post, questioned how Sportspersons of Merits (SOMs) were included in the voting list and were allowed to contest before the IOA general assembly ratified them as members with voting rights. A few members questioned why a singular voting ballot was not being used to elect four executive council members. However, the objections were disregarded by Sinha.
Asked about the objections, Chaubey said they were not in a position to comment.
“This answer should be given by the Returning Officer since the election has been conducted under his purview as per the order of Supreme Court. We are not in a position to comment but definitely your concern is also our concern,” Chaubey said.
He also dismissed the allegation of 32 withdrawals during the Athlete Commission election as an excuse put forward by the losing candidates. “You see, an election has been conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court and an RO has been appointed. If that election has been conducted democratically, how can anyone say it was not fairplay? There are two teams in any competition and one will lose. The team that loses will always come with excuses. The winning team cannot keep addressing those excuses,” he said.
Office-bearers: President: PT Usha; Sr. vice president: Ajay Patel; Vice presidents: Rajlaxmi Singh Deo, Gagan Narang; Treasurer: Sahdev Yadav; Joint secretaries: Alaknanda Ashok, Kalyan Chaubey;
Executive council members: Amitabh Sharma, Bhupender Singh Bajwal, Lt. Gen. Harpal Singh, Rohit Rajpal; Dola Banerjee (SOM-F), Yogeshwar Dutt (SOM-M); Athletes’ Commission members: MC Mary Kom, Achanta Sharath Kamal.
