IOA Elections: Kidambi Srikanth withdraws from Athlete Commission polls

Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Mirabai Chanu are among the strong candidates for membership of the Athletes' Commission in the elections, which will be held virtually on Tuesday.

Under the IOA's election rules, the 10-member Athletes' Commission should have at least four athletes, two male and two female, who have won at least one medal in any of the last three editions of the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships/Cups or National Games.

The remaining six members, three male and three female, should have participated in at least one of the last three editions of the Olympic Games.

Returning Officer Sanjay K Srivastava said in a statement that Manjeet Singh, from kayaking and canoeing, was the sole candidate to have filed his candidature under the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships/Cups or National Games medallist category. He was thus elected unopposed as a member of the Athletes' Commission.

"The election shall be held for the remaining nine seats: (a) 4 male - 3 under Olympian category and one under medallist (Asian Games/Commonwealth Games etc) category; (b) 5 female - 3 under Olympian category and 2 under medallist (Asian Games/Commonwealth Games etc)," the statement said.

The members of the Athletes' Commission, to be elected virtually by 34 members of the electoral college, will have a four-year tenure (2026-2030).

On October 22, Srivastava had issued a draft list of nominations received for the election, which contained 12 sportspersons.

Besides Sindhu and Chanu, the other sportspersons in the fray are men's and women's hockey captains Harmanpreet Singh and Salima Tete, shooter Swapnil Kusale, fencer Bhavani Devi, Sudha Singh and Tajinderpal Singh from athletics, former archer Bombayla Devi and swimmer Sajan Prakash.

Sindhu, Chanu and Bhavani are also members of the outgoing Athletes' Commission headed by celebrated boxer MC Mary Kom.

On October 16, Srivastava had issued a list of 34 electoral college members, two each from 17 National Sports Federations, for the Athletes' Commission election.

There were no representatives from the All India Football Federation (AIFF), the All India Tennis Association (AITA), the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), and the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI).

According to Article 10.3 of the Athletes Commission Rules of the IOA ratified in September: "Only those NSF Members which have established an Athletes' Commission shall be allowed to appoint their athletes' representatives through their respective Athletes' Commissions."

Two members, one male and one female, of the Athletes' Commission shall be made members of the IOA Executive Council.