IOA Athletes’ Commission Formed With PV Sindhu, Mary Kom, Mirabai Chanu

India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra and former India hockey team captain Sardar Singh will complete the 12-member athletes commission.

Boxer M C Mary Kom, a five-time world champion, double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, and several winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan were among the 10 illustrious athletes who were unanimously elected as members of the IOA Athletes Commission on Monday. 

Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics, the shooter Gagan Narang, legendary table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal, legendary hockey player Rani Rampal, the cyclist Bhavani Devi, swimmer Bajrang Lal, and former shot putter OP Karhana are the other seven members of the top body.

All 10 members, five of them are women, have competed in the Olympics. The only Olympian from the winter is Keshavan. 

Umesh Sinha, who is also the returning officer for the future IOA elections, ruled that all ten candidates who submitted nominations for the same number of seats on the Athletes Commission were elected without any opposition.

Abhinav Bindra, the first individual Olympic gold medalist from India in shooting, and Sardar Singh, the former captain of the Indian hockey team, will round out the 12-person athletes commission in their respective capacities as members of the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia. 

They will both be able to cast ballots. While Sardar was appointed to the OCA Athletes Committee in 2019 for a four-year term, Bindra was appointed to the IOC Athletes Commission in 2018 for an eight-year term.

The athletes commission will have an adequate share of male and female members under the new Indian Olympic Association constitution, which was accepted on November 10. 

According to Keshavan, who has served India in six Winter Olympics, this is the IOA’s first fully functional athletes commission.

The nation’s athletes are experiencing a momentous occasion right now. For the first time in IOA history, the organization now has a legitimate and fully functional athletes commission. 

The IOA Executive Council will elect two members of the athlete commission on December 10 per the Supreme Court’s directives, one male and one female.