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India not in race for 2024 Olympics bid: International Olympic Committee chief

Thomas Bach surprised about speculation; PM Modi wants to be well-prepared and have expertise before hosting quadrennial event

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Prime minister Narendra Modi with Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee during a meeting in New Delhi on Monday
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First things first. India is not in the race to host 2024 Olympic Games. The hype created over the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach here on Monday failed to bring out any concrete result over this hot topic being discussed in the media these days.

As reported by dna on Monday, 'the report submitted by the sports ministry to the Prime Minister Office (PMO) doesn't present a rosy picture in the wake of large sum corruption scandals that marred the hosting of 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi" has proved right.

None other than IOC chief has put an end to the speculation that India might bid for 2024 Olympics after his meeting with Modi.

However, Bach described his meeting at 7 RCR as "excellent" and described the speculations as "too quick for India".

"We were aware of the speculation. Quite frankly, we were a little surprised about this speculation because we thought it may be too quick for India to host the Olympics in 2024. We checked with the PM about it and he said he wants to be well-prepared and have expertise before doing that. But, he is seriously looking into the Olympic candidature. The PM also considered that launching a successful bid for 2024 from now till September 15 deadline may be a little difficult.

"We will stay in contact for the future, but for the 2024, we shared the same opinion that it would be too early," Bach said at the end of his whirlwind 24-hour trip to India, his first since being elected as IOC chief in 2013.
Bach was of the view that it would be too soon for India to host Games of such magnitude as the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has come out of suspension only a year back.

"It's only been a year since IOA has come out of suspension. Clearly, the IOA has to find its feet. IOA needs to find ways on how to support the athletes and make India's sporting future a success. They should focus on athletes and their good results at the international events. For now, India needs to build its athletes, find unity among itself, so that you can field a strong team at the 2016 Rio Olympics," said Bach, the 1976 Montreal Games gold-medallist fencer.

Despite being the world's second most populous nation, India have a poor record in Olympics. Bach, too, disclosed that PM Modi agreed that India is a "sleeping giant" which needs to be woken up soon and that the immediate focus should be on athletes performing better in Olympics.

"India is a sleeping giant and we at length discussed on how to wake it up. The PM was clear in his thought that he would like to use his authority and dynamism to wake this giant up and the IOC is more than willing to assist in this because we think that 1.2 billion people including about 80 million young people have a huge potential. India could be a powerhouse in sports."

Bach also raised the issue of IOA and various National Sports Federations' autonomy issue with the PM. This was necessitated as the sports ministry has been forcing NSFs to follow the provisions of Sports Code 2013.

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