India has serious chances of bidding for Olympics: Rogge
New Delhi: India holds a serious chance of bidding for the Olympics, if it manages to give a successful and incident-free Commonwealth Games to the world, said Jacques Rogge, the President of International Olympic Committee.
In an interview to an Indian news channel, Rogge said that the fundamentals are in place for India to bid for the Olympics. The only thing the country now needed to look at is the Commonwealth Games- which start here on Sunday- is carried out well and fine.
There is a difference between Olympics and Commonwealth Games. Olympics is bigger and more complicated, said Rogge.
But I think India has set a good foundations tone for the Olympics bid and a successful Commonwealth Games can help India mount a serious bid for Olympics, he added.
Rogge also said that looking at the way the country is moving ahead with the Games, the entire event will surely make India proud and portray it in a good light.
I think the Games will make India proud. It is something we can show to the world that we can organize an event of such big stature, he said.
He also said that India should, can and will to well at the Games.
Talking about the security that has been put in place for the Games, Rogge said that the arrangements are satisfying and good. Security is good with a lot of discipline very well applied. It is not intrusive. It is oppressive, he said.
The IOC President also said that looking at the way the Games are being handled now, India is sure to have a good event. I think everything will be fine. The things are going well and we have very experienced people handling it, he added.
He also said that India being the second most populous country in the world must get maximum number of medals in the event. We need more gold from worlds second most populous country, he said.
When asked to give out a message to the country ahead of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, Rogge said that more and more youth of the nation must be encourage to pick up sports.
My message to India is practice sport. Sport is education, sport is health and sport is joy. More youth in the country must practice sports he finally said.
He also said that his expectation from the Commonwealth Games is the welfare of athletes. He said that if the athletes are happy, the Games can indeed be called a successful one.