Veteran athlete PT Usha on Monday became the first woman president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Apart from 58-year-old Usha, no other candidate had nominated in the IOA elections. Being the only candidate in the election, she became the President of IOA even before the results on 10 December 2022.

Ajay Patel has been elected as the Senior Vice President of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). There was no other candidate other than Patel for this post also.

Usha will replace Adil Sumariwala
Usha is the 16th President of IOA. She will replace Acting President Adil Sumariwala. Narendra Batra was the President from December 2017 to May 2022. After this, on May 25, Anil Khanna was made acting president. Sumariwalla replaced him on 21 August. Now Usha has become full time IOA President.

Usha is the first choice
The last date for nominations for the President of IOA was 27 November. Election Officer Umesh Sinha said that till November 27, 24 candidates filed nominations for different posts. However, apart from Usha, no one nominated for the post of president. Usha did the nomination on 26 November. Its information was shared on social media.

See Usha’s achievements in the graphic below…

Kiren Rijiju congratulated
Minister of State for Home Affairs and former Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju congratulated Usha on becoming the President. Said in the social media post- Congratulations to India’s Legendary Golden Girl Mrs. PT Usha on becoming IOA President. Congratulations to all the other sporting heroes who have become members of the IOA. The country is proud of him.

Los Angeles was famous from the Olympics
Usha came into limelight during the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles. He finished fourth in the 400m hurdles. There was just 1/100 second gap between her and the third ranked athlete.

There was also a controversy on this match that Usha has finished in third place. Actually, technology was not so advanced at that time. So, Usha had to return to the country without a medal.

18 gold in Asian tournament
After the disappointment of not winning a medal at the 1984 Olympics, Golden Girl won 5 gold and a bronze medal at the 1985 Jakarta Asian Games. Won 4 gold and one silver in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. During 1983 to 1989, he won a total of 13 gold in the Asian Track and Field event. By the end of her career, she had won 4 gold medals in the Asian Games and 14 gold medals in the Asian Championships.

See his performance during the Jakarta Asian Games in the graphic below…

Padma Shri was received in 1985
Based on her performance, Usha, who hails from Kozhikode in Kerala, was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India in 1985. Became a Rajya Sabha member on 6 July 2022.