New Delhi: International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi today during his one-day whirlwind visit to discus ways to take Indian sports forward amid speculation that the country might bid for 2024 Olympics. Bach, who is on his first visit to India after taking over as the head of IOC in 2013, arrived here late on Sunday.
PM Modi and I will talk about any issue he may want to discuss. I think it will be a very good meeting,” he said. The crucial meeting of Bach with the Prime Minister has been scheduled for 5pm on. Before that, the IOC chief will meet the Executive Committee of the Indian Olympic Association in the morning at 10am at a city hotel.
Bach, who hails from Germany, is likely to interact with the media before flying back to Lausanne, the seat of the IOC, on Monday night. IOA and sports ministry officials are tight-lipped on whether India will express its desire to bid for the 2024 Olympic Games during Bach’s meeting with the Prime Minister. Boston, Hamburg and Rome are already declared bidders for 2024 Olympics.
He will also visit Australia on Wednesday to discus Brisbane’s possible bid for 2028 Olympics and will meet Prime Minister Tony Abbott, according to reports. Bach was upbeat about Indian sports scaling new heights in the near future and wants the country to win more Olympic medals, according to top IOA officials.
Obviously, Mr Bach is upbeat about Indian sports. He asked me why the second most populous country in the world was winning just a few medals in Olympic Games. He wants India to win more medals in the Olympics,” IOA President N Ramachandran has said. He feels that India should do better in Olympic Games and become a sporting power in the future,” Ramachandran said.
Ramachandran, however, did not divulge much on what Bach would discuss with the Prime Minister but said the meeting could give a big push to funding on Olympic sports, including the prospect of the corporate sector loosening its purse strings.
I am not in a position to tell what Mr Bach will discuss with our Prime Minister. But such a meeting will give a big push forward for Olympic sports in India. We can ask for more funds for the athletes from the government,” he said.
Bureau Report
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