New Delhi: Shooting ace Abhinav Bindra today accepted the offer of Indian Olympic Association to become Goodwill Ambassador of India’s Olympic contingent.
The Olympic gold medalist will share the honour alongside Bollywood star Salman Khan whose appointment created an uproar. Besides Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and Music Maestro A R Rahman have also been approached with a similar offer.
India’s first and only individual Olympic gold-medallist, Bindra said he received IOA’s invitation today and immediately agreed for the role.
IOA has also approached Tendulkar and Oscar-winning music composer A R Rahman with a similar offer.
Many sports personalities had slammed the move and questioned the timing of the appointment. Salman's movie 'Sultan', based on wrestling is due for release soon.
“Received a letter this afternoon from the President and Secretary General of the IOA inviting me to be a goodwill ambassador. I am humbled that they thought I am worthy enough for this honour. I respectfully accept this with gratitude,” Bindra said in a series of tweets.
The rifle shooter, who is also a former World Championships gold-medallist, will be competing in the Rio Games come August and said he would write to all the Olympics-bound athletes to motivate them.
”I have lived my life for the OG &have always done my best to work for the betterment of the Olympic movement in India &I will continue. While my focus will be to perform at Rio,I will be writing to every member of the Indian Olympic team &offering them any help they may want,” he added.
”Every Indian Olympian is a champion in his or her own right I would just be sharing my experiences with them! I would be open to doing this until the 15 th of July &after that my focus will completely be towards my own performance until my event.”
Tendulkar and Rahman, however, are yet to respond to the IOA’s offer
