On Sunday, IOA (Indian Olympic Association) defended their decision of electing Bollywood superstar Salman Khan as goodwill ambassador for Indian Olympic contingent at Rio Olympic 2016.

Earlier on Saturday morning, IOA (Indian Olympic Association) announced the name of Salman Khan as a goodwill ambassador of Indian Olympic contingent. After that, IOA received negative reactions especially from the sports persons, while some of them went on to criticize IOA for making this decision.

The London Olympic bronze medal wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt expressed his anger over this decision in his official Twitter account while former Indian sprinter Milkha Singh requested to revise the decision once again.

Now IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta stated on Sunday, “We are very happy and thankful for Salman’s offer to support Olympic Sports in this country. This association is only a gesture and does not include any monetary consideration.”

Salman Khan

Then Mehta also spoke out about the reason Bollywood star has been chosen as a goodwill ambassador of Indian Olympic contingent for Rio Olympic 2016.

He stated, “He (Salman Khan) is the biggest Bollywood star in the country in terms of mass following and our key objective of bringing him on board is to draw maximum attention from the masses, due to which there will be more eyeballs and viewership which will eventually result in popularizing Olympic sports in the country.”

Also, Mehta added, “We may appoint more icons from other walks of life like music, cricket, art, culture and Olympic sports etc. Mr. Salman Khan is only being appointed from Bollywood segment and we are in talks with two other big names in music and cricket. We are more than willing to have as many icons including the likes of Ms. Anju Bobby George and Ms. PT Usha who have the capacity and capability to popularize Olympic sports in the country.”