Mary Kom offers to resign from IOA athletes’ commission

Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom has offered to resign from the chairmanship of the Indian Olympic Association's athletes' commission.

Mary Kom, who also won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, has confirmed that she has offered to resign from her current post. "I have offered to resign from the athletes' commission. I have not yet sent in an official letter," Mary Kom told The Tribune on Monday.

When asked about the reason why she has decided to quit, she replied, "It is for a personal reason."

This is the second time in over six months that Mary Kom has cut ties with the IOA. Previously, she resigned as the chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent for the Paris Olympics citing personal reasons.

However, the IOA has denied that Mary Kom has offered to quit. "We have not seen any resignation letter," said a source.

As the athletes' commission chairman, Mary Kom was part of the committee that recommended the name of Raghuram Iyer as IOA's CEO. The committee of three also included IOA president PT Usha and IOC member Nita Ambani.

Iyer was named as CEO by the IOA president in January last year. However, the IOA executive committee members, including senior vice-president Ajay Patel, vice-presidents Rajlaxmi Singh Deo and Gagan Narang and treasurer Sahdev Yadav, opposed the appointment stating that he was being offered a huge sum in salary.

They had asked Usha to renegotiate the salary twice but even after Iyer agreed to a salary cut, his name is still to be cleared by the EC. In March of 2024, the IOA officials stalled an emergency executive meeting over Iyer's appointment.

The emergency meeting of the executive committee called to decide on the change of the name of the bank signatory ended without a compromise.