PT Usha becomes Indian Olympic Association President
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New Delhi: India's legendary athlete, PT Usha, got elected as the first woman president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Saturday, PTI reported.
Usha, the 58-year-old, who is a multiple Asian Games Gold medallist and fourth finisher in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics 400m hurdles final, got elected unopposed in the polls for the top post of the 95-year-old organisation.
The elections, monitored by the Supreme Court-appointed retired SC judge L Nageswara Rao, ended the long-drawn crisis in the faction-ridden IOA. IOA was warned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of possible suspension if the polls were not held in a month.
While the polls were originally scheduled for December 2021, Usha emerged as the lone candidate for the post late last month.
Usha was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP in July, and nobody was willing to challenge her in the IOA polls.
Usha is the first Olympian and the first international medallist to take the top seat of the association.
She had dominated Indian and Asian athletics for two decades and retired in 2000. She is the first sportsperson to have represented the country and also become IOA chief since Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, who played a Test match in 1934.