Outgoing IOC Chief Thomas Bach Sings Praises Of Abhinav Bindra For Promoting Olympic Values Programme

Outgoing president Thomas Bach praising his "friend" Abhinav Bindra for his involvement in Olympic Values Education Programme and story of Indian children getting "bamboo" table tennis board through Olympism 365 programme found mention during the historic IOC Session on Wednesday. (More Sports News)

The International Olympic Committee began its session at this Greece resort city, with the all-important election of the president to take place on Thursday.

While taking up the reports of various Commissions, Bach, who will demit office in June after a transition period, mentioned the name of celebrated shooter Bindra, India's first individual Olympic gold medallist and also a current member of the IOC Athletes Commission.

"We have Olympic education commission with the chair, Mrs Mikaela Cojuangco Jaworski. Also a written report. Are there questions? I think there we all should digest the huge numbers of the OVEP programme," Bach said.

"Not only, but in particular in India. Thanks also to our friend Abhinav Bindra. But worldwide, where we can think finally, thanks to your drive and your efforts and the one of your commission members that we can feel that the OVEP programme is really gaining ground."

The IOC launched the first Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) in India in May 2022, with the Olympism-themed curriculum being integrated into the school education system in Odisha.

One of the first major IOC projects to be implemented in India, OVEP is being developed in partnership with the Government of Odisha's Department of School and Mass Education and the Abhinav Bindra Foundation Trust (ABFT).

In August last year, during the Paris Olympics, Bindra was awarded the prestigious Olympic Order by Bach in recognition of his "distinguished contribution" to the Olympic movement.

Olympism 365 Commission Chair Auvita Rapilla later mentioned its programme in rural India, though without much detail.

"When launched in 2021, IOC's Olympism 365 strategy was an idea. It has been translated into concrete action and impact. Young people and their communities across the world are benefitting from the values sport can nurture," she said.

"...like the young women in Samoa or in Mexico or India with IOC working with ground breaking social enterprises to produce sustainable bamboo table tennis table and delivering scope for community development programme in rural areas. These are just three of hundreds of community programmes."

Then came the turn of the report presented by the Future Host Commission which will recommend the 2036 Olympic host to the IOC Executive Board. At that point, Bach remarked that two-digit number countries have shown interest in hosting the next Olympics. The 2028 and 2032 Games will be held in Los Angeles and Brisbane respectively.

"Now we have the future host commission. There we have for the Games of the Olympiad the written report by the chair Mrs. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. Are there questions? Some may want to know the result for 2036 or 2040 or 2044," Bach said in a lighter note.

"I think we have good news for you and we have bad news for you. The good news is we have a two-digit number of interested parties for the upcoming Games. And the bad news for you is that we have a two-digit number of interested parties for the next Olympics.

"So good luck then for this great endeavour and congratulations on how you have managed this procedure so far with sometimes some pretty impatient interested parties. But this shows your great diplomatic skills, how you have approached this."

The Indian Olympic Association has submitted its expression of interest to host the 2036 Games to the Future Host Commission of the IOC, but a decision on the host will not be taken by the IOC before 2026.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed India's interest to host the 2036 Olympics during the earlier IOC Session held in Mumbai in 2023.