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Indian Olympic Association

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Country/Region
  
India

Created
  
1927

ContinentalAssociation
  
OCA

Code
  
IND

Recognized
  
1927

Headquarters
  
New Delhi, India

Indian Olympic Association

The Indian Olympic Association (Hindi: भारतीय ओलम्पिक संघ) is the body responsible for selecting athletes to represent India at the Olympic Games, Asian Games and other international athletic meets and for managing the Indian teams at the events. It also acts as the Indian Commonwealth Games Association, responsible for selecting athletes to represent India at the Commonwealth Games.

Contents

Early History

Background and early years: The background behind the creation of the Indian Olympic Association was related to India’s participation in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics. After the 1920 Games, the committee sending the team to these games met, and, on the advice of Sir Dorab Tata, invited Dr. Noehren (Physical Education Director of YMCA India) to be secretary, along with AS Bhagwat, of the provisional Indian Olympic Committee; Dorab Tata would serve as its president. Subsequently, in 1923-24, a provisional All India Olympic Committee was formed, and the All India Olympic Games (that later became the National Games of India) were held in Feb 1924. Eight athletes from these games were selected to represent India at the 1924 Paris Olympics, accompanied by manager Harry Crowe Buck. This gave impetus to the development and institutionalization of sports in India, and, in 1927, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), was created at the initiative of Harry Crowe Buck and Dr. A. G. Noehren (both of the Madras (YMCA) College of Physical Education). Sir Dorab Tata was important in financing and supporting the movement and became the first Indian Olympic Association president in 1927. Messrs Buck and Noehren travelled across India and helped many states organise their Olympic associations. Noehren was the first Secretary and G. D. Sondhi was the first assistant secretary of the Indian Olympic Association, and, after Noehren resigned in 1938, Sondhi and S.M. Moinul Haq became the Secretary and Joint Secretary of the Indian Olympic Association.

And so the Indian Olympic Association was formed in 1927, and since that year was officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee as India's national Olympic organisation.[1] In 1928, Maharaja Bhupindra Singh took over as Indian Olympic Association president.

Early Tasks:

  • Sending Teams to the Olympics: In its first decade, the Indian Olympic Association selected sportspersons to represent India at the Olympic Games in 1928, 1932, and 1936. Subsequently, by 1946-47, the Indian Olympic Association took responsibility only to send the Indian team to the Olympics (principally, this meant arranging transport, board, and accommodation), while the separate federations for each sport were responsible for selecting and training competitors for their sport. Reflecting this, ahead of the 1948 Olympics, the IOA Council agreed that a team representing athletics, swimming, weight lifting, wrestling, boxing, football, and hockey, with officials for each of these sports, and a Chief Manager, would be entered for the 1948 Olympics. And so, from 1948 onward, India began sending teams representing several sports – each selected by its respective sports federation – to the Olympics.
  • Securing Funding: One of the Indian Olympic Association’s main early challenges was to secure funding, so that it could send the national team to the Olympics and finance the related costs of transport, room, and board. It obtained funding from the Indian government, from the state governments, and from various state sports federations.

    • Illustrating this, IOA President Yadavindra Singh's appeal for funding in 1948 stated: "We need about 3 Lacs of rupees to finance" the Indian Olympic team for the London Olympics; that "the youth taking part in these games become ambassadors of goodwill" for India; and that "careful selection, intensive training and proper equipment is most essential" to field a competitive team, but that the Indian Olympic Association is "greatly handicapped for want of sufficient funds" for these tasks.

    The Indian Olympic Association thus undertook wider outreach with several national sports federations, and essentially became a clearing house that coordinated the sending of multiple sports teams – each selected by their respective sports federations – to the Olympics.

  • The National Games: The Indian Olympic Association had one other major responsibility: that of holding the biennial National Games (Indian Olympics). It recognised, in the 1920s-1940s, that the promotion of sports in India needed a National Games, because there was no overall national sports federation of India. Instead, there were separate national federations for each sport, such as athletics, swimming, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, weightlifting, cycling, boxing, football. These sports federations essentially held their national championships at the Indian National Games.

    • Recent History

    On 4 December 2012, the International Olympic Committee suspended the IOA on the basis of corruption, government interference, and not following guidelines of the IOC. Several members of the IOA have been charged with crimes. The IOA was formally banned for not following the Olympic Charter in their elections, instead following the Indian government's Sports Code. The IOA held elections under the Indian Sports Code due to a directive from the Delhi High Court. On 15 May 2013, International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to lift the ban on the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) as Indian representatives from the government and sports bodies reached an agreement with IOC officials. India still did not have its three competitors play under the national flag at the 2014 Olympics. On 9 February, an election was held to choose a head of the IOA. Abhay Singh Chautala and Lalit Bhanot were ineligible due to having a court charge against them. The President of the World Squash Federation Narayana Ramachandran was instead elected.

    IOA Presidents

    13. Mr. #Mohan Chandra Pal
  • Indian members of the International Olympic Committee were Dorab Tata (1920-1930), G D Sondhi (1932 to the 1950s), and Raja Bhalindra Singh (since 1947). They served as ambassadors of the International Olympic Committee to the Indian Olympic Association.

    • Governing committee

    Since 26 April 2011, after the arrest of its president Suresh Kalmadi; Vijay Kumar Malhotra was the acting president of the IOA up to 5, December, 2012. The current President, Secretary General and treasurer of the IOA are N. Ramachandran, Rajeev Mehta and Anil Khanna respectively. The election of Lalit Bhanot was considered controversial by some due to his alleged involvement in the Commonwealth Games Scam. The International Olympic Committee suspended India's National Olympic committee on 4 December 2012 because of government interference in its election process. On 11 February 2014, the International Olympic Committee revoked the ban enforced on Indian Olympic Association. As a result, India returned to the Olympic fold after 14-months.

    IOA Executive Committee

  • President — N Ramachandran
  • Sr. Vice-President — Mr. Virendra D. Nanavati
  • Vice-Presidents —

    • Dr. Akhilesh Das
    Mr. Birendra Prasad Baishya
    Mr. Tarlochan Singh
    Mr. G.S. Mander
    Mr. Janardan Singh Gehlot
    Mr. Parminder Singh Dhindsa
    Mr. R. K. Anand
    Mr. Anurag Thakur

  • Secretary General — Mr. Rajeev Mehta
  • Treasurer — Mr. Anil Khanna
  • Joint Secretaries —

    • Mr. Rakesh Gupta
    Dr. Surinder Mohan Bali
    Raja K. S. Sidhu
    Mr. Kuldeep Vats
    Mr. Anandeshwar Pandey
    Ms. Sunaina Kumari

  • Executive Members —

    • Mr. Bhubneshwar Kalita
    Mr. Balbir Singh Kushwaha
    Mr. Dhanraj Choudhary
    Mr. Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi
    Mr. Ajit Banerjee
    Mr. Vikram Singh Sisodia
    Mr. Avadhesh Kumar
    Mr. Namdev Shirgaonkar
    Mr. Adhip Das
    Mr. Bhupender Singh

    State Olympic Associations

    1. Andaman & Nicobar State Olympic Association
    2. Andhra Pradesh Olympic Association
    3. Arunachal Pradesh Olympic Association
    4. Assam Olympic Association
    5. West Bengal Olympic Association
    6. Bihar Olympic Association
    7. Chandigarh Olympic Association
    8. Chhattisgarh Olympic Association
    9. Delhi Olympic Association
    10. Diu-Daman Olympic Association
    11. Goa Olympic Association
    12. Gujarat State Olympic Association
    13. Haryana Olympic Association
    14. Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association
    15. Jammu & Kashmir Olympic Association
    16. Jharkhand Olympic Association
    17. Karnataka Olympic Association
    18. Kerala Olympic Association
    19. Madhya Pradesh Olympic Association
    20. Maharashtra Olympic Association
    21. Manipur Olympic Association
    22. Meghalaya State Olympic Association
    23. Mizoram Olympic Association
    24. Nagaland Olympic Association
    25. Orrisa Olympic Association
    26. Pondicherry Olympic Association
    27. Punjab Olympic Association
    28. Rajasthan Olympic Association
    29. Sikkim Olympic Association
    30. Tamil Nadu Olympic Association
    31. Olympic Association of Telangana
    32. Tripura State Olympic Association
    33. Uttarakhand Olympic Association
    34. Uttar Pradesh Olympic Association
    35. Services Sports Control Board

    National Sports Federations

    National sports federations are categorized in two categories i.e. Olympic Sports and Other Recognized Sports

    IOC Winter Olympic Sports

    These all sports are under the Winter Games Federation of India.

    IOC Recognized Sports

    Following are the National Sports Federation of sports which are recognized by IOC.

    Others

    Following are some sports which IOC doesnot recognise as a Sport.

    Multi-Sport Events hosted by IOA

  • 1951 Asian Games
  • 1982 Asian Games
  • 1987 South Asian Games
  • 1995 South Asian Games
  • 2003 Afro-Asian Games
  • 2007 Military World Games
  • 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games
  • 2010 Commonwealth Games
  • 2011 South Asian Winter Games
  • 2014 Lusophony Games
  • 2016 South Asian Games

    • Awards by IOA

  • Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
  • Arjuna Award
  • Dronacharya Award
  • Dhyan Chand Award

    • References

    Indian Olympic Association Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA