NEW DELHI: Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) decision to incorporate ‘Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit’ (SOM) into the general assembly with voting rights has generated a lot of interest among the former athletes.
Several eminent sportspersons have sent in their applications to the IOA’s newly-elected athletes commission, headed by Olympic medallist M C Mary Kom, to become part of the Indian sports administration as SOMs.
The athletes commission is responsible for picking eight SOMs (four male and four female), who will be casting their votes during the IOA’s elections on December 10.
It’s been learnt that more than 70 former sportspersons have applied for the eight SOM posts. “Quite a few promising names have applied which is good for Indian sports. Some haven’t filled up their application forms properly but that’s not the ground for rejecting their candidature,” a source told TOI.
A sub-committee has been tasked to prepare the preliminary list of shortlisted candidates before it is presented before the full 10-member athletes commission for the final approval. The eight SOMs will have to be named by Saturday evening as per the deadline set by the returning officer for IOA’s elections, retd (IAS) Umesh Sinha.
The sub-committee is headed by Gagan Narang and the other members include Shiva Keshavan, Sharath Kamal, Rani Rampal and P V Sindhu. The members have been holding daily meetings to finalise the names of SOMs, who can contest for the IOA’s office-bearers’ posts. The SOMs shouldn’t have participated in any competitive sport for at least one year prior to the date of application.
