With big names, IOA Athletes Commission eyes a fresh start

With the Indian Olympic Association getting back to business, the defunct Athletes Commission (AC) is also showing signs of revival.

- Avishek Roy

The IOA AC, headed by MC Mary Kom, was formed with much fanfare to become the voice of athletes in federations but there was hardly any activity in the past 18 months as the turmoil within the IOA took centre-stage.

The AC, which has some of India's most decorated athletes, will now reach out to federations to name their athletes' representatives. AC vice-chairperson Sharath Kamal said their first task is to ask National Sports Federations to forward names of two athletes who can liaison with them.

"One thing on the agenda is to try and activate as many as AC with different NSFs. If any federation doesn't not have an athletes commission yet, they can at least give us two representatives who can communicate with IOA AC," Sharath told HT.

"We also had discussions on beginning athlete centric programmes that's been part of the Olympic movement. We will clearly have a pathway on how we go about in coming years," said the table tennis star.