A two-member delegation of Mr. Makis Asimakopoulos, director,  International Olympic Academy (IOA) and Ms. Alexandra Karaiskou visited the Sports Authority of India's Headquarters in Delhi to meet senior officials of the Sports Ministry, led by Secretary, Ministry of Sports, Shri. Hari Ranjan Rao.

During the meeting Mr. Asimakopoulos said that he was impressed to see "The Plan, the strategy and the vision that the Sports Ministry has put in place in order to play a major role in the Olympic Movement."

He added that after seeing all the sports programmes being run by the government the IOA is keen to extend help to strengthen Olympic education in the country.

"We want to bring our expertise to train people in the sports ecosystem on the values of Olympism and Olympic Games so that young people in India are trained to understand Olympic values,” he further said.  

The meeting was aimed at discussing collaborations between IOA and the Sports Ministry, along with the Indian Olympic Association and the newly-revived National Olympic Academy, to strengthen sports education in India through specially curated programmes for Indian coaches, sports science experts and PE teachers.

The IOA, set up in 1961 and housed in ancient Olympia in Greece is the only institution in the world promoting Olympic education and studies. It has a network of National Olympic Academies in various countries, including one in India, which has recently been revived.

Adding to this Ms. Alexandra said, "We had a very productive discussion and from the presentation made by the Secretary Sports, we saw that India is taking concrete steps to host the Commonwealth Games and the bid for the 2036 Olympics. I am very happy that the National Olympic  Academy in India has been revived after a very long time and we expect to work in very close collaboration with the IOA and Sports Authority of India to promote Olympic values in India."

Summing up the outcome of the meeting, Shri. Rao said, "We had a very fruitful first meeting and we intend to take this collaboration forward so that we can draw from the rich experience of the IOA and strengthen our sports education further. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the sports ecosystem is growing at a very fast pace & it is critical to create experts who can take the Olympic movement in India forward."

Shri Rao further said that the IOA can support India's Olympic education endeavour by creating global standard curriculum tailored for India, extend skilling ecosystems at India's premiere education institutions, create certified courses for administrators, host masterclasses by international experts, and have joint research and digital collaborations.

Besides, it has been proposed that India will host a Conclave for Global National Olympic Academies. Discussions are afoot for collaborations with the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) for Olympic education for hosting legacy knowledge exchange.

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Ayushman Kumar

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