Abhivav Bindra agrees to be India's Goodwill Ambassador For Rio Olympics
[caption id="attachment_12890" align="alignnone" width="580"] Abhinav Bindra agrees to be Goodwill Ambassador in Rio 2016 for India. Image Source: File Pic[/caption] Internet Desk: After a fallout over appointment of Salman Khan as India's Goodwill Ambassador for Rio Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday wrote to Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and music maestro AR Rahman to join Salman. Out of the three so far, Bindra is the first to accept the offer. Expressing his "gratitude" in a series of tweets, Bindra posted an image of the letter IOA sent him requesting to accept the offer. But the ace shooter, who will also be one of the competitors in India's shooting contingent for Rio, said he will only be available for the role until July 15. There was a huge furor over the appointment of Bollywood icon Salman, with wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, sprint legend Milkha Singh and many others expressing their displeasure over not considering a sportsperson for the role. The IOA then issued a clarification through their secretary Rajeev Mehta who said Salman's role doesn't have any monetary aspect attached to it and is only done so that his popularity can bring in more support for India at Olympics. The secretary also said that they will be approaching celebrities from the cricket and music world in the coming days, which was followed by an offer made to Tendulkar, Rahman and Bindra.
Received a letter this afternoon from the President and Secretary General of the IOA inviting me to be a goodwill ambassador. CONT.
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 29, 2016
I am humbled that they thought I am worthy enough for this honour. I respectfully accept this with gratitude. CONT .
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 29, 2016
I have lived my life for the OG &have always done my best to work for the betterment of the Olympic movement in India &I will continue CONT.
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 29, 2016
While my focus will be to perform at Rio,I will be writing to every member of the Indian Olympic team &offering them any help they may want
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 29, 2016
Every Indian Olympian is a champion in his or her own right I would just be sharing my experiences with them! CONT
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 29, 2016
I would be open to doing this until the 15 th of July &after that my focus will completely be towards my own performance until my event CONT
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 29, 2016
Request every Indian citizen to whole heartedly support the INDIAN OLYMPIC TEAM #rio2016 #Indianolympicteam #indianolympiansarechampions
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 29, 2016