‘Too early for India to host 2024 Olympics’

We are aware of this speculation. Quite frankly, we were a little bit surprised about this speculation" the IOC chairman said.

April 28, 2015 02:44 am | Updated 03:45 am IST - NEW DELHI:

Thomas Bach. Photo: R. V. Moorthy

Thomas Bach. Photo: R. V. Moorthy

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Thomas Bach, on Monday dispelled speculation that India might bid for the 2024 Olympics and signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support sports in the country with cooperation from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Government.

After a series of meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and representatives of the IOA throughout the day, Bach, who arrived here late on Sunday night, spoke in favour of striking a balance between autonomy and good governance in the running of the National Sports Federations (NSFs) and urged warring factions in the National Olympic Committee (NOC) to have unity among themselves.

Speaking about the rumours about India’s possible bid for the 2024 Olympics, Bach said the IOC was surprised to get the news and wanted to know the real fact. “We are aware of this speculation. Quite frankly, we were a little bit surprised about this speculation. We think it may be a little bit too early now for India to have a successful Olympic Games in 2024.

“So this is why we are asking the question. We are very happy to see that the Prime Minister is sharing his opinion and he is seriously looking into an Olympic candidature but wants to have it well prepared and wants to have all the expertise of sport, the Government and the civil society (together). Therefore he also considers building such successful candidature from now to September 15 (the last date to submit bids) maybe a little bit difficult. So we will stay in contact for the future, but for 2024 we share the same opinion,” Bach said addressing mediapersons here.

On the issue of autonomy of the NOC and NSFs, whose representatives had apprised the IOC chief in the morning of the growing Government interference in their functioning, Bach said autonomy and good governance must go hand-in-hand.

Describing India as a “sleeping giant” in sports, Bach said Prime Minister Modi was keen to wake this giant. “We also discussed performance of Indian athletes in international events and there we both agreed with regard to performance of Indian athletes, India is a sleeping giant. The Prime Minister was very clear he would like to use all his authority and dynamism to wake this giant up and was asking whether and the IOC would be ready to assist and how. We are more than happy to assist. In fact we think 1.2 billion people have huge potential and India can be a powerhouse in sports.”

Talking about the MoU, Bach said within the framework of IOC’s international assistance programme it is committing itself to support sports in India through IOA and in cooperation with the Government.

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