Sort out IOA crisis, rise in dope violation, says IOC

India is pushing to host the 2036 Olympics, emphasizing youth engagement but facing IOC concerns over governance issues and rising doping violations.

Bengaluru: India has made an ambitious pitch to host the 2036 Olympics. With its growing economic clout and status as the country with the world’s largest youth population, India holds strategic appeal for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which continues to focus on engaging younger generations.

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As new IOC president Kirsty Coventry took over the reins from Thomas Bach – under whose presidency an IOC session was held in Mumbai and cricket (T20) was included in LA 2028 – India has been quick to seize the opportunity. A high-level delegation visited IOC headquarters in Lausanne this week and initiated the “continuous dialogue” process towards hosting the Games.

The Indian delegation was led by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha and Gujarat sports minister Harsh Sanghavi besides having union sports ministry Hari Ranjan Rao and senior IOA and Gujarat sports officials. While pitching Ahmedabad as the host city, the delegation spoke of how the Olympic movement would benefit from the connection of 600 million young Indians and that it could serve as a “generational springboard for socio-economic development, innovation, education, and youth pride, advancing both India and the Olympic Movement.”

“IOC has told the delegation that governance issues within IOA need to be sorted. IOC has said that IOA, NSFs (national sports federations), and the government need to be on the same page. They have also raised concerns over the rise in doping cases and called for strong anti-doping measures to be implemented,” people aware of the development told HT.

India has surged to the top of doping nations in recent years. Earlier this year, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) figures showed that India’s National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has topped the worldwide chart for the number of adverse analytical findings (AAFs) with 213 positive cases in 2023. The trend was similar in figures for 2022 released by WADA last year with India reporting 125 AAF, the only nation to have crossed 100 positive results.

“IOC wants India to implement strong anti-doping measures,” said the people mentioned above. In IOA, IOC wants the governance issues to be sorted out at the earliest.

This is not the first time IOC has raised a red flag over governance in IOA which has almost come to a standstill over the appointment of CEO Raghuram Iyer. While Iyer was part of the delegation in Lausanne, his appointment is yet to be ratified by the IOA executive board that has opposed his candidature over his pay package and administrative powers.

It has led to a bitter fallout with Usha who has insisted on the need to have a CEO as mandated in its constitution. She has said that Iyer was appointed only after the go-ahead by the executive board. The members, on the other hand, have differing views.

The CEO’s role is crucial in the new IOA constitution drafted under the supervision of the Supreme Court with inputs from the IOC. Last year, IOC had told IOA that CEO’s appointment is a must “especially with conversations around future hosting of the Games. You need a very strong National Olympic Committee to be able to back those kinds of bids.”

Since the new governing body in IOA took charge in 2022, the General Assembly has not met. Executive board meetings too have not been held regularly. The last meeting was held in October and the only agenda was “ratification of CEO” but members failed to reach a consensus. An IOC representative who joined the meeting online to sort out differences was told by an executive board member to “not interfere in IOA’s internal matters.”

IOC has since stopped the solidarity grant meant for the IOA. Due to the deadlock, the IOA finance committee has also not cleared important bills.