NEW DELHI: Inter­national Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach’s visit to India will boost the profile of Olympic sports in the country regardless of whether it bids for the Games, according to a local official on Sunday.

Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) secretary-general Randhir Singh made the comments ahead of Bach’s planned meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid speculation that India may want to host the Olympics in 2024.

“We’ve been hearing about the government being keen to bid for the Games but I think we have to wait and see how things go,” Randhir said.

“I think the IOC chief’s visit will boost sports federations and bring them in the limelight, which too is good for sports.”

India’s chances of landing the hosting rights are considered slim because Rome, Boston and Hamburg are already declared candidates for 2024 and a host of other cities including Paris are expected to join the race.

“There is also the chance that India bids later. But the very fact that the IOC president and our prime minister are meeting, brings Olympic sports into focus,” said Randhir, who is also an IOC member.

“There are likely to be some ‘Memorandums of Understanding’ signed and we could see the National Institute of Sports in Patiala made into a high-performance center, which again will be good for us,” he added.

India have been trying to change their image as a one-sport country in recent years even though cricket remains a national obsession.

The world’s second most populous country has only recently started winning medals at the Olympics with their greatest haul of six medals coming at London in 2012, but did not include a single gold.

Rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra remains the only individual gold medal winner, having won at Beijing in 2008. The last of India’s eight Olympic gold medals in field hockey came 35 years ago at Moscow.

Randhir said it was too early to speculate on how India would benefit if it hosted the Olympics.

“There are obviously going to be a lot of gains but let’s wait ‘till something is announced before discussing how we will benefit,” he said.

India hosted the Asian Games with some success in 1951 and 1982 but their organisation of the Commonwealth Games in 2010 was criticised both in India and abroad over construction delays and corruption scandals.

All three were held in New Delhi but the Indian media is rife with speculation that Ahmedabad could be proposed as a host city for the Olympics.

The Indian Olympic Association, which was suspended by the IOC for more than a year in 2012 for electing tainted officials, dropped its plan to bid for the 2019 Asian Games last year despite being provided a deadline extension by the OCA.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2015

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