Nita Ambani gets re-elected to the IOC; leads bid for 2036 Olympics in India

In recent weeks, Nita Ambani has appeared in international celebrity press as the proud mother of Anant, whose four-month-long wedding festivities had everything from private concerts by Justin Bieber and Rihanna, to Tony Blair, Boris Johnson and the Bollywood elite as distinguished guests. Now, she is in Paris for the entire Olympic fortnight.

And for good reason, as she has been a member of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) since 2016, and has just been re-elected. The Reliance Foundation, which she chairs, financially supported India House—the first in Olympic history—a brightly coloured pavilion with the silhouette of a Maharajah's palace installed in the Parc de la Villette, not far from the houses of Brazil and Colombia.

It is in this showcase of Indian crafts, music, cuisine, and sport that Nita Ambani, dressed in an elegant floral sari, shaded with pink, complies with an interview with a French daily, Le Figaro. Ambani, a Bharata Natyam dancer with a degree in economics, has not missed an Olympiad since Athens in 2004. At the ceremony on Friday evening, she said she felt "like a teenager", dressed in a poncho for the rain, alongside her husband and her "IOC friends". "The athletes loved the boat parade," enthuses Nita Ambani, who enjoyed hearing "Lady Gaga sing in French" while "Celine Dion was the icing on the cake." When asked if Thomas Jolly's show could inspire an Olympic ceremony in India, she replied that she would like to highlight Indian culture.

Because India has great ambitions in terms of the Olympics. Narendra Modi, like the leaders of Qatar before him and other emerging nations, has understood the potential power of sport in the service of soft power. The bid of Ahmedabad, the capital of the state of Gujarat, once governed by Modi and from which the Ambani family comes, for the 2036 Games is not yet official. But the prime minister "made it clear that he wanted (India) to run for 2036," Ambani said. A candidacy that she fervently defends.

Not quite yet an Olympic giant

For now, the world's most populous nation, with more than 1.4 billion people, is still not an Olympic giant. It is certainly fielding 117 athletes in 16 disciplines at Paris 2024 but has accumulated 10 gold medals in 25 Summer Olympiads (compared to more than 220 for France or more than 260 for the Chinese rival). The Foundation, chaired by Nita Ambani, supports several national champions, including Jyothi Yarraji, the first Indian woman to go under 13 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. "Her mother is a servant, her father a security guard ", our "queen of sprinting" "tells a story of this Indian youth full of hope", says Nita Ambani.

Jyothi Yaraji trained at the High-Performance Centre, one of the three sports facilities of the Reliance Foundation that also supports the educational and sports training of more than 22 million young Indians across the country. "We are becoming a multi-sport country," says Nita Ambani. She cites Neeraj Chopra, gold medallist in the javelin in Tokyo, who was then followed on screens by 60 million compatriots. The national sport, almost a religion, remains cricket. Nita Ambani owns the Premier League club Mumbai Indians and the Reliance Group owns five clubs worldwide. Cricket will make its debut in the Olympic family at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. A golden opportunity for India.

What are the main assets of the Asian giant to claim the 2036 Olympiad? "This is our population of 1.4 billion people, a very young population," insists Nita Ambani. Two out of three Indians are under 35 years old. "The country's infrastructure has improved significantly over the past four to five years thanks to Prime Minister Modi," said the president of the Reliance Foundation. Before, travelling to India was difficult, for young people, joining a training centre could be an ordeal. Today, it is much easier to reach a city from a village, and sports facilities have multiplied.

In a country that is often portrayed as more diverse than Europe, which is crossed by religious and social fractures, "sport can be the best vector of unity and equality", "when children are on the field, all differences are forgotten, this is what the world needs more than ever", insists Ambani.

Lead image credit: Reliance Foundation

This article originally appeared on Le Figaro. It has been tweaked for context.

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