2036 Olympics bid: P.T. Usha’s stand-off with IOA members finally set to end

There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel about the impasse at the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which brought the operations of the country’s umbrella governing body of sport to a virtual standstill for the last two years. A joint press conference by P.T. Usha, the beleaguered IOA president, and her executive council members is scheduled on 24 July, Thursday, in Delhi — and is expected to throw more light on the current situation and hopefully the path forward.

The theme of the media interaction — 'Powering India’s sporting aspirations: IOA’s Vision 2036’ — sounds self-explanatory. Those in the know of things reveal that renewed attempts to break the deadlock between the president and her EC members — which primarily began with the latter refusing to ratify the appointment of Usha-backed CEO Raghuram Iyer — commenced soon after the IOA delegation’s visit to Lausanne earlier this month. The IOC, incidentally, had suspended its Olympic Solidarity grants to the IOA last year due to poor governance and lack of an audit procedure.

However, things began moving when the IOC top brass gave a piece of their mind to the IOA delegation about how they needed to raise their game to make a foolproof case for their 2036 Olympics bid, with Ahmedabad as the host city. It is learnt that Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, the Union minister of sports and youth affairs, had stepped in to bring together a stubborn Usha and some of the influential EC members for a discussion across the table.

“A clear roadmap is expected to emerge at the press conference tomorrow. However, the fact that the IOA CEO Iyer will be present there along with the EC members suggests all parties are willing to work together again,” well-placed sources told National Herald. The EC members had earlier called Usha’s style of functioning ‘autocratic’ for appointing Iyer at an ‘exorbitant’ salary. She, meanwhile, had slapped down a series of allegations against her team in statements to the media.

Usha had reportedly reached out to a few EC members on her part to break the ice, naming treasurer Sahdev Yadav and EC member Bhupender Bajwa in a panel to set a roadmap for the delayed Boxing Federation of India (BFI) elections. Yadav, president of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF), had been a stumbling block in the operations and had once threatened legal action against Usha for questioning the legal standing of his IOA position.  

Iyer, a former CEO of IPL teams, is known to be an astute administrator and his appointment is likely to be ratified now with certain renegotiations.