Former IOA president and veteran sports administrator Suresh Kalmadi dies at 81

Pune: Former Indian Olympic Association president and veteran sports administrator Suresh Kalmadi died at a hospital here in the early hours of Tuesday.

He was 81.

Kalmadi is survived by his wife, son and daughter-in-law, two married daughters and a son-in-law, as well as grandchildren.

Kalmadi, who had been unwell for some time, died around 3.30 am.

A towering figure in Indian sports administration for more than two decades, Kalmadi served as IOA president from 1996 to 2011, making him one of the longest-serving heads of the country’s apex Olympic body.

Born in 1944, Kalmadi began his professional life as a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force, taking part in both the 1965 and 1971 wars, before entering politics and sports administration.

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He went on to represent Pune in the Lok Sabha multiple times as a Congress leader and also served as a Union minister, while steadily consolidating his position in Indian and international sports bodies.

As IOA president, Kalmadi had enormous influence during a period when Indian sport was expanding its global footprint.

He also served as president of the Asian Athletics Association and was a member of the IAAF Council, making him one of India’s most powerful sports administrators internationally.

Under his IOA tenure, India achieved a historic breakthrough at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when shooter Abhinav Bindra won the country’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medal. He was also the Chairman of the Organising Committee when Delhi hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Kalmadi was also closely associated with the growth of athletics and sports infrastructure in Pune, and played a key role in initiatives such as the Pune International Marathon, which became a regular fixture on the Indian road-running calendar.