Ambani keen to realise dream of hosting the Olympics
IOC member Nita Ambani harbours dreams of getting the Olympics to India someday and wants to start building towards it in the coming years.
The Olympics represents the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world - and perhaps one day the sport-loving nation of India may play host to it.
That's the ambition of International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, Nita Ambani.
“We have never had an Olympic Games presence in India,” she told India Today. “My dream is to start little by little and we realise this dream for generations to come."
She wants to set in motion the wheels for that and first hold the next 2023 IOC session in India, a proposal for which was pushed through at the previous one in Lausanne last year and then host the Youth Olympics.
“If we get the Youth Olympics to India, we can change the lives of many children. That will be our gateway to the Summer Olympics,” Nita Ambani added in the interview. “It’s a win-win for the Olympics and for India.”
India no stranger to hosting big events
If Nita Ambani, who was elected to the IOC in 2016, does manage to garner enough support for her proposal in the global Olympics governing body, it would represent a big opportunity for India.
Moreover, the country has played host to big-ticket events in the past, having organized the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and the cricket World Cup in 2011.
India at the Youth Olympics
Organizing a Youth Olympics might be a good pre-cursor to the ultimate challenge and India has benefitted in terms of identifying talent at the event in the past.
In the most recent Youth Olympics in 2018, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Lakshya Sen and Manu Bhaker won medals while the tournament has seen Indian tennis player, Yuki Bhambri, wrestlers Pooja Dhanda and Shiva Thapa win medals in earlier editions.