Harmanpreet Singh Named Vice-Chair of IOA Athletes’ Commission as Sindhu Takes Top Job
Harmanpreet Singh keeps collecting titles, and this one has nothing to do with a hockey stick.
India’s men’s hockey captain has been elected vice-chairperson of the Indian Olympic Association’s Athletes’ Commission. PV Sindhu, the two-time Olympic medallist in badminton, takes the chair. Both were elected unopposed, as the sole candidates for their posts, and the results were formally declared on Saturday.
The Returning Officer, Sanjay K. Srivastava, confirmed the outcome in a notice issued on Friday. That made the election scheduled for Saturday unnecessary. The commission will serve four-year terms, running from 2026 to 2030, and Sindhu and Harmanpreet will join the IOA Executive Council once it is constituted after the IOA elections on December 5.
Who else is on the commission
Mirabai Chanu, the weightlifter, and Sajan Prakash, the swimmer, were elected as the commission’s two representatives to the IOA General Assembly. They’ll carry voting rights in the December 5 IOA polls. Sindhu and Harmanpreet themselves don’t vote in those polls.
The 10-member commission was elected unopposed on November 3, and it has a strong hockey presence. Women’s captain Salima Tete is on it too, alongside Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Swapnil Kusale, Bhavani Devi, Bombayla Devi and Manjeet Singh.
It’s quite the week for Harmanpreet. He finished the Asian Champions Trophy as the tournament’s top scorer with 10 goals and was named Player of the Tournament, and he brought up 250 senior international goals along the way. Now he has a formal voice in how Indian Olympic sport is run.
That’s the part that matters most. Athletes’ commissions are often treated as a box to tick, but this one puts two of India’s biggest current stars at the table, and a hockey captain who has led his team to back-to-back Olympic bronzes and a continental title. For our money, Indian hockey having its captain inside the IOA’s decision-making rooms is a bigger deal than it looks. The next test is whether the commission actually gets heard once the Executive Council is in place after December 5.