Opinion P T Usha elected first woman president of Indian Olympic Association: A popular and credible face, a new beginning

The legendary P T Usha being elected unopposed as the first woman president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is a shot in the arm for the most important stakeholders in sport — the athletes. The sprint queen’s CV is impressive. She knows what it takes to win medals, has groomed the next generation of athletes at her academy and has been consistently outspoken — be it about doping, age-fudging or step-motherly treatment of athletes. Usha’s elevation also gives the IOA what it desperately needed — a popular and credible face. The International Olympic Committee had threatened the IOA with a ban unless it stopped dragging its feet on holding elections and sorted out its “governance issues” and “internal disputes” involving veteran officials and their coterie.

Usha and her team including Olympic medalists, wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, boxer M C Mary Kom, shooter Gagan Narang, and table tennis star Sharath Kamal, make the revamped IOA a sports star-heavy umbrella body. But they will have to show that sportspersons can make good administrators too. The switch hasn’t been easy for former greats. Former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly proved to be a poor ambassador. Ganguly’s tenure as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India was blighted with conflict of interest allegations and a trust deficit between him and then Team India captain Virat Kohli.

Advertisement

Usha must bring to bear her fierce independence of thought to her new role. The government may try and use the soft power of sports to boost its image. But is it wise to bid for the Olympics when the country’s medal count is in single digits? Usha must form her vision for the IOA after listening to athletes, national sports federations and coaches, including those who work at the grass roots. For a country with aspirations to become an Olympic superpower, two individual gold medals over four Summer Games just won’t do.