NEW DELHI: Resourceful, influential and often at the centre of controversy, Suresh Kalmadi was among India’s most powerful sports administrators for over two decades. The former Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president, who passed away in Pune early on Saturday, leaves behind a legacy marked in equal measure by sporting successes and scandal.
Born in Madras in 1944, Kalmadi studied at Fergusson College in Pune, the city he would later represent in Parliament. Before entering public life, he served in the Indian Air Force between 1964 and 1974, first as a commissioned pilot and then as an instructor, retiring as a Squadron Leader.
His political career began under the mentorship of Sharad Pawar. Appointed Pune Youth Congress chief, he went on to develop close ties with Sanjay Gandhi and later Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1982, 1988, 1994 and 1998, and served as Union Minister of State for Railways in 1995 during the PV Narasimha Rao government. He entered the Lok Sabha from Pune in 1996, lost the seat in 1998, but returned to win again in 2004 and 2009.
It was, however, his rise in sports administration that brought him national prominence — and controversy. As IOA president from 1996 to 2011, Kalmadi oversaw several major events hosted in India, including the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG), and two Asian Athletics Championships in 1989 and 2013.
He was closely associated with athletics, serving as president of the Athletics Federation of India for 19 years from 1987 to 2006. During this period, India hosted international track-and-field meets in New Delhi across the 1990s, while the Pune International Marathon became a regular fixture. New Delhi staged the Asian Athletics Championships for the first time in 1989, and Kalmadi later brought the event to Pune in 2013. He also served as president of the Asian Athletics Association from 2001, besides being a member of the World Athletics Council from 2001 to 2013.
But his tenure was overshadowed by allegations of corruption in the conduct of the 2010 CWG, leading to his arrest in 2011 and transforming him into the public face of the Games’ controversies. Though he consistently denied wrongdoing, the criticism overwhelmed him at the time. In April this year, the Enforcement Directorate filed a closure report in the case, giving him a clean chit.
Supporters, however, point to his administrative achievements. As IOA chief, he revived the National Games and ensured they were held at regular intervals across cities such as Pune, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Imphal. Under his watch, India secured its first individual Olympic gold medal through shooter Abhinav Bindra at the 2008 Beijing Games — a landmark moment in Indian sport.
Beyond sports, Kalmadi also helped establish the Pune International Film Festival and the Pune Festival during Ganeshotsav.