IOC Session in India: Thomas Bach says Nita Ambani and her team have done a 'fantastic job' in boosting sports in nation

Ahead of the International upcoming 141st Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Mumbai, president Thomas Bach had words of praise for the IOC member Nita Ambani and her team, saying that they had done a “fantastic job” in helping boost the sporting spirit in India.

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The IOC session will be held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai from 15 October to 17 October. This will be for the first time in 40 years the IOC session will be held in India, with New Delhi having previously hosted it in 1983. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Session on Saturday.

“Nita Ambani and her team have done a fantastic job… We are looking forward to the opening ceremony of the 141st IOC Session tomorrow night, which will show once more that the Olympic spirit in India is growing.

“I experienced this spirit when I went with Nita Ambani to the Reliance Foundation where kids from underprivileged families are given access to sports,” said Bach at a press conference on Friday.

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Citing India’s spectacular run at the just-concluded Asian Games where they won a record 107 medals, Bach said that there was interest among the younger generation to take part in the Olympics.

“We saw the great performance of Team India at Asian Games. India is also No.2 when it comes to followers. There is particular interest among the young generation in Olympic games,” said Bach.

Bach also announced the setting up of pilot hubs, to be monitored by Safe Sport Task Force. This will include sports representatives, civil society and intergovernmental organisations.

“These hubs will provide the athletes with independent guidance, psychosocial support, legal aid, and any other help that they may need through existing services, available locally, in the athletes’ own language, with an understanding of their culture and local context.

“The IOC Executive Baord approved the establishment of two pilot regional safeguarding hubs in Southern Africa and the Pacific Islands and to support the initial work for a European safeguarding hub,” the 69-year-old said during the press conference.

Bach had earlier recounted his experience of visiting the Reliance Foundation Young Champs Academy in Navi Mumbai.

“I had a visit together with our IOC colleague and friend Nita Ambani to their Reliance Foundation and the programmes they’re offering there to the kids and youth with regard to sport and education. I’m really deeply impressed by Reliance and her team because you see kids from all over India in this centre.

“And most of them are coming from underprivileged families and they are being offered education and schooling. But at the same time, they are given the opportunity to train and to prepare for becoming an athlete, a high-level athlete,” continued Bach.

“This is something that exactly reflects our Olympic values and our approach, which we have in our strategies. But to see it on such a scale and being done, you know, by a private entity, which is the Reliance Foundation, guided by our colleague – that’s really very, very impressive and very encouraging also for the future of sport, of Olympic sport in India,” he added.