International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Thursday lauded Reliance Foundation and Nita Ambani in his opening address on the opening day of the IOC Executive Board meeting in Mumbai. The meeting comes ahead of the IOC session in Mumbai from October 15 to 17.
Bach said he was impressed with what he saw on his visit to Reliance Foundation Young Champs Academy in Navi Mumbai.
“I had a visit together with our IOC colleague and friend Nita Ambani to their Reliance Foundation and the programmes they’re offering there to the kids and youth with regard to sport and education. I’m really deeply impressed by Reliance and her team because you see kids from all over India in this centre. And most of them are coming from underprivileged families and they are being offered education and schooling. But at the same time, they are given the opportunity to train and to prepare for becoming an athlete, a high-level athlete," Bach said.
He said the approach of Reliance Foundation and its chairperson and IOC member Nita Ambani is an exact reflection of the Olympic values.
“This is something that exactly reflects our Olympic values and our approach, which we have in our strategies. But to see it on such a scale and being done, you know, by a private entity, which is the Reliance Foundation, guided by our colleague – that’s really very, very impressive and very encouraging also for the future of sport, of Olympic sport in India," he added.
Earlier this week, IOC, along with the Olympic Museum, had aligned with Reliance Foundation to build on the success of the Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) in India and signed a new cooperation agreement. The agreement underscores the organisations’ shared priority to promote Olympic values through sport among young people.
The new cooperation was agreed upon by Bach and Nita Ambani during their visit to the Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC) football academy in Mumbai, which Bach alluded to in his speech on Thursday.
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