Former IOA President Suresh Kalmadi passes away

Suresh Kalmadi, the former President of Indian Olympic Association, passed away on Tuesday in Pune. He was 81.

An Indian National Congress leader and former Union Minister, Kalmadi is survived his wife, a son, and two daughters. 

Kalmadi is a controversial yet respected figure in the world of Indian sports. His foray into the world of sports administration started in 1980 when he was appointed the president of Maharashtra Athletics Association. By this time he had already served as the president of the Youth Congress for Maharashtra.

Over the next decade, Kalmadi had a fast rise in the Indian political as well as the sporting landscape.

In 1996, he was elected as the president of the Indian Olympic Association. It was a position he would go on to hold for over a decade-and-a-half until 2012.

When the 2010 Commonwealth Games scandal unfolded in Delhi, Kalmadi found himself in the centre of the attention. He was suspended from the Indian National Congress in 2011 and sacked as the IOA President in the aftermath for his alleged involvement in the scandal.

However, last year Kalmadi was given a clean chit in all but one case surrounding the CWG scandal, as he embroiled in a long legal tussle.

Kalmadi also served as a president of the Asian Athletics Association from 2000 to 2013 and was named as the continental body's Life President in 2015.