Suresh Kalmadi, former IOA chief, passes away at 81
The Indian sporting fraternity is in shock following the death of Suresh Kalmadi, a towering figure of the Indian Olympic movement and former president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Kalmadi passed away on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. He was 81.
From the early 1980s until 2011, Kalmadi was the go-to man in Indian sport. Barring former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya and a handful of cricket administrators, few possessed his charisma and zeal to push through a sporting revolution in the country.
A telling example was the marathon ‘Freedom 40 Run’ in 1987, which was flagged off by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who flew down specially for the event. Ironically, on Tuesday, no senior leader of the Indian National Congress, barring Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and Sandeep Dikshit, publicly expressed grief over his demise.
The day summed up the man he was. Global track and field icons — including 100m Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, middle-distance legend and four-time Olympic medallist Sebastian Coe and long jump world record holder Mike Powell — travelled to India at his invitation. His vision of hosting Asian athletics events from the late 1980s marked the beginning of India becoming a credible partner in staging international meets.
As president of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), Kalmadi revived the stalled National Games. A push for sports infrastructure, the hiring of foreign coaches and exposure trips for athletes were all initiatives that began under his stewardship.
Current IOA president PT Usha, popularly known as the ‘Payyoli Express’, mourned his passing. “As IOA president, I am saddened by the demise of former IOA president, Shri Suresh Kalmadi ji. He was also president of the AFI for nearly two decades where he introduced numerous developmental programmes for the growth of athletics in India. My condolences to his family! Om Shanti!” she wrote on social media.
His long-time associate Lalit Bhanot described him as a man of vision whose policies continue to benefit the country. “We were making a budget for training of our athletes before the 2010 Commonwealth Games. I gave him a budget of Rs 200 crore. He scoffed and said we have to get more money for training,” Bhanot recalled.
“I told him ‘government may not sanction more’. He then sought Rs 1,000 crore for training, we got Rs 600 crore and crossed 100 medals at the Games. He was of the opinion that as hosts we should win more medals. That training helped us to win six medals at the London Olympics, which was our best showing for a long time,” he said.
Kalmadi began his career as an Indian Air Force fighter pilot and took part in both the 1965 and 1971 wars with Pakistan. After taking premature retirement, he reinvented himself as a successful businessman, then a politician and finally as one of the most powerful sports administrators in the country.
His fall from grace followed allegations of corruption during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He, along with Bhanot and VK Verma, was arrested and charged. As one sports commentator once remarked, “The Commonwealth Games scandal brought an end to his sports administrator and political career.”
