Former Indian Olympic Association president and veteran sports administrator Suresh Kalmadi died at a Pune hospital in the early hours of Tuesday. He was 81.

Kalmadi is survived by his wife, son and two daughters. He had been unwell for quite some time.

A towering figure in Indian sports administration for more than two decades, Kalmadi served as the IOA president from 1996 to 2011, making him one of the longest-serving heads of the country’s apex Olympic body.

Born in 1944, he began his professional life as a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force, taking part in both the 1965 and 1971 wars, before entering politics and sports administration.

He went on to represent Pune in the Lok Sabha multiple times as a Congress leader and also served as a Union minister.

But it was his transition into sports administration that earned him much fame. He brought several top-class events to the country including the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, as well as two Asian Athletics Championships in 1989 and 2013.

In 2011, allegations of corruption into the conduct of the Commonwealth Games were levelled against him, culminating in his arrest.

However, in April last year, the Enforcement Directorate filed a closure report in the case, giving him a clean chit.

Despite the controversy, Kalmadi continued to wield influence in sports bodies. In 2016, he and Abhay Singh Chautala were appointed life presidents of the IOA by a panel of over 150 members.

However, after the Union sports minister sought a probe into the decision, Kalmadi declined the honour, stating in a letter to then IOA president N Ramachandran that the timing was not appropriate for him to accept the post.

The soft-spoken administrator earned much flak during the scandal and was blamed for organising the costliest Commonwealth Games of all time while he headed its Organising Committee.

He vehemently denied any wrongdoing, but those assertions were lost in the public outrage that followed.

But it would be unfair to remember Kalmadi for all his wrongdoings. As head of the IOA, one of his biggest successes was to revive the National Games.

He was closely associated with Indian athletics, serving as the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president for 19 years from 1987 to 2006.

During this time, he managed to rope in international track and field stars for eight meets in Delhi from 1989 to 1998. He also helped in organising the Pune International Marathon, which is now a regular fixture.

New Delhi also hosted the Asian Athletics Championships in 1989 for the first time in the country’s history.

Elected as Asian Athletics Association (AAA) president in 2001, he launched Asian Grand Prix Athletics meet in 1990.

He also brought Asian Athletics Championships to Pune in 2013 but lost the AAA president’s elections to current chief Dahlan Al Hamad held just before the continental showpiece event in his hometown.

Kalmadi was honoured with the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) award in Beijing in 2008 for his role in spreading awareness on Olympics.

One of the highlights of his IOA tenure came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when shooter Abhinav Bindra won the country’s first-ever individual Olympic gold medal.

Written with PTI inputs