Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt has miffed over the appointment of Salman Khan as the  Indian Olympic contingent ambassador, at the social media. The appointment was announced by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in New Delhi.

 

Expressing disappointment, the Olympic medalist tweeted that, “What is the job of an ambassador, can someone tell me? Why are they trying to fool the nation.”

“Why weren’t sportspersons such as PT Usha, Milkha Singh, who have been through such tough times and fought for the country made the ambassador?”, he added.

Dutt who won Olympic bronze medal in 2012 has qualified for the Rio Olympics in the 65 kg category, already.

According to sources from IOA, the appointment of Salman Khan is on the basis of his latest  Bollywood venture based on wrestling, ‘Sultan’. However, this is not in accordance with Olympic development that states that sports should not be kept close to commercial success and complete focus should be on the athletes.

A senior IOA official said, “Our main goal is to push the Olympic sports towards the mainstream realm, and the selection of Salman Khan will do just that. As you know outside of cricket other sports are not as popular, once people know somebody like Salman Khan is involved, they will be attracted to India’s participation.”

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- Sumana