IOC chief to meet newly-elected members of IOA in April

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will meet the newly-elected members of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Executive Board during his brief visit to India next month.

HE Sheikh Ahmad Al Sabah, President ANOC and President OCA, will also be visiting India between April 18 to April 20.

Bach and Sheikh Ahmad will have a potential meeting with Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on April 19. This will be followed by a meeting with the Members of IOA Executive Board led by President Narinder Dhruv Batra and Secretary General Rajeev Mehta.

While turning India into a major challenger in world sports and powering India's performance at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games will be key talking points of the meeting, Batra is also expected to express IOA's preparedness to host multi-discipline sporting events in the near future.

While I cannot divulge or speculate what will be discussed during the meetings with the Indian Government and Sports Minister, the IOA would certainly convey our readiness to host big-ticket multi-discipline events in India and would like to discuss how we can effectively work towards achieving IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020 strategy, Batra said.

After taking over as the IOC President in 2013, Bach had visited India for the first time in 2015. However, this will be the first time that he would be meeting the newly-elected Board Members of IOA.