Narinder Batra to resign from his post of president of the Indian Olympic association
Narinder Batra addressing
|Narinder Batra, the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), will stand down at the conclusion of his tenure to focus on his role as the president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH). Batra was elected to the IOA for the first time in 2017 and was eligible to run for reelection.
“At a time when world hockey is going through an essential development phase, with the promotion of Hockey5s, the creation of a new competition this year – the FIH Hockey Nations Cup – and the launch of fan-engaging platforms and activities, my role as president of the FIH requires more time,” Batra said on Wednesday.
“Consequently, I’ve decided to not run for a further term as president of the IOA,” Narinder Batra said. In addition to becoming the president of the IOA, Batra was admitted as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2019 and subsequently became a member of the Olympic Channel Commission.
During Batra's tenure, India had their most successful Olympic campaign in Tokyo 2020, winning seven medals, including gold in the javelin throw by Neeraj Chopra.
“I feel that the time has come for me to leave this role to someone coming with a fresh mind and new ideas to take Indian sports to much much greater heights and also go all out to work to get the 2036 Summer Olympics in India,” Narinder Batra added.
The IOA elections were supposed to take place in December of last year, but they were postponed owing to continuing changes in the election procedure.
