Having been a member of the Olympic Council of Asia since 1991, Raja Randhir Singh will finally assume charge as its president at its 44th General Assembly on Sunday. And the veteran sports administrator is confident of yoga passing the final approval to become a recognised sport at the Asian Games on the occasion.
“Every country works hard to promote their sports — China did for wushu, Japan for karate, we also brought in kabaddi in 1990. Now yoga has been approved by the OCA sports committee and the executive board and hopefully on the 8th, I am confident of yoga being recognised as an Asian Games sport. But I don’t think it is an Indian event any more; yoga has become a world sport.
“There are discussions on possibly medal events each for men and women and we have also brought in a points system, like gymnastics, to judge the asanas, make it more systematic and streamlined. It will be a demo sport in 2026 and become competitive after 2030,” Randhir told The Hindu in a wide-ranging exclusive interaction here on Thursday.
The 77-year old also backed India’s ambitions of hosting the 2036 Olympics but declared there was more to hosting events than just the Olympics, encouraging Indian officials to aim for the Asian Games as well.
“It is definitely possible for India to host the 2036 Olympics. I feel we are capable of it and it will be good for India. But it won’t be easy, a lot will depend on the actual bid. Saudi Arabia hasn’t officially confirmed yet but they are in the pipeline, Qatar is very keen on bidding and Istanbul is half-Asia, so that’s four from the continent. Good luck to the IOC!”
On India hosting the Asiad, Randhir was supportive. “Today, winning medals is as important as simply hosting an event and at the last Games, we won over 100.” So the benefit of hosting Asian Games will be to do that at home and it will be great for Indian sports but it depends on the government and the IOA,” he insisted.
‘Bid for Winter Games’
The OCA president-designate, in fact, pushed for the country to bid for the Winter Games as well. “We have the slopes in Uttarakhand and Himachal, there is a beautiful but defunct ice skating rink in Dehradun. Not just sports, the amount of tourism benefits will be tremendous.”
The one thing he was critical about was the tenure limit in the national sports code. “You have to climb up the ranks gradually. And you need your people in international federations, in the IOC to help grow as a sport. I feel a 12-year limit is too little for any administrator,” he said.
Published - September 05, 2024 11:06 pm IST
