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Paris 2024 will have more athletes from Maharashtra: Shirgaonkar
Updated On: 28 September, 2021 08:30 AM IST | Mumbai | Ashwin Ferro
Newly-elected Maharashtra Olympic Association General Secretary assures full support to athletes at grassroot and professional levels with an eye on ending state’s Olympic medal drought
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Maharashtra Olympic Association General Secretary, Namdev Shirgaonkar
Wrestler Kashaba Jadhav (bronze medal at Helsinki 1952) remains the first and only individual Olympic medallist from Maharshtra. This does not do justice to a state that boasts of immense sporting talent and pedigree. And that’s something newly-elected Maharashtra Olympic Association General Secretary, Namdev Shirgaonkar is keen to change. Shirgaonkar, 40, who previously held the post of vice-president of MOA, was elected General Secretary unopposed last week. He is now hoping that his plans to initiate and encourage sport at the grassroot and professional levels come to fruition with minimum opposition.
“The first thing I’ll do is conduct a review to check for any pending work that will be acted upon immediately. A vision plan for the next four years will be made and discussed within the board to check how we can work together to execute the plan for our athletes. The idea is to not produce or nurture only one or two Olympians, but to look at the bigger picture. We rely too much on one or two athletes. We need to have a large number of athletes coming forward and that will happen when we strengthen the grassroot level system because that’s where champions are born,” Shirgaonkar told mid-day.com on Monday.
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