Brij Bhushan Goyal
Ludhiana, June 24, 2019 - The International Olympic Day was celebrated at Guru Nanak Dev Stadium, Ludhiana with great fervor and enthusiasm. The function was attended by Olympians, coaches and young players, particularly school children playing regular games in the stadium.
It was the first ever initiative in Ludhiana to celebrate the day in tune with world over celebrations. June 23, is considered as the birth date of the Modern Olympic Movement as International Olympic Committee (IOC ) this day in 1894 formally took the decision to start international competitions every four year. But, the celebrations of the Olympic Day every year started in 1948 with a motive that nations keep active throughout the year to learn about sporting competition in the world.
The famous Hockey Olympian Hardeep Singh Grewal, who played in Asian Eleven and was member of Olympics Hockey Contingent of India called upon the young sportsmen present there to do the utmost initial hard work in their game they choose and then there will be no looking back .He also advised to maintain the semblance with their formal studies too as this was also essential to settle in life fruitfully.
The renowned Hockey Coach Mr. Baldev Singh of Haryana,who coached many an international Olympians especially reached there to encourage the coaches and the players .He told coaches present there about their great responsibility in sincerely grooming the budding players to success in the competitive sports.
Mr. Teja Singh Dhaliwal ,General Secretary of Punjab Basketball association was all praise for Brij Goyal,a sports enthusiast who initially mooted the idea of today’s celebrations and informed that it will be regular feature every year when players will be honored too. However, he lamented that successive Government of Punjab have not done much for the sports promotion at the ground level in comparison to Haryana due to which many a youth have come in the grip of drugs addiction. He gave a oath to the budding players to never succumb to addiction and prevent others.
Mr J P Singh, PCS (Retd.) ,Vice –President PBA ,while congratulating for the initiative to mark the celebrations asked the players that in every game seriousness and concentration is the key to success. Prof. Rajinder Singh dwelt upon the Olympic goal of “Move-Learn-Discover” given by the IOC in it’s charter as motive of the games.