Indian Women Athletes to Ditch Saris at 2018 Asian Games Ceremonies: Report

The women athletes in Indian contingent will not wear saris during the opening and closing ceremonies of the upcoming Asian Games to be held in Indonesia in August-September this year. The women athletes will instead wear blue trousers and navy blue blazer, similar to the men’s outfit, like they did at the Commonwealth Games that took place last month in Gold Coast, Australia.

“We have decided that the two ceremonies at the Asiad will see the entire contingent maintaining a uniform dress code. The women athletes will sport the same attire they wore during the Gold Coast CWG,” Indian Olympic Association Secretary General Rajeev Mehta said, the Times of India reported.

The IOA took the decision of leaving out the sari from the dress code after taking feedback from the women participants after the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the report said.

Meanwhile, the accreditations of 19 Indian athletes for the upcoming Asian Games were rejected earlier during the week by the organizers who raised objections about the pictures submitted by the applicants that showed them sporting a wide smile, PTI reported. Besides the athletes, two officials from the Indian delegation were also asked to resubmit the application form in the proper prescribed format, the report added.

“The IOA had sent us the strict guidelines about the accreditation process. It may seem funny but the organizers, in fact, gave guidelines that you cannot smile on your photo and you cannot show your teeth and you have to take it on white background,” the report quoted an official from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) as saying.

The issue also cropped up ahead of the Commonwealth Games that took place last month in Gold Coast, Australia, the report added. “It happened in the run-up to the Gold Coast CWG. We had to resend photos of some athletes again to the organisers after their accreditation were rejected initially. Of course, they were accepted and given accreditation later,” the official added.

Among the 19 athletes was the current women’s 400m Asian champion and Rio Olympian Nirmala Sheoran, whose photo was rejected for not having been clicked against a white background. The photos of Kerala quartermiler Sachin Roby, Rajasthan’s Hina (100m) and Sayali Waghmare (who runs 400m and 800m) were rejected because their teeth were visible, while Bengal runner Himashree Roy was found to have submitted a smiling passport size photo. Distance runner Sanjivani Baburao Jadhav and 800m runner Sajeesh Joseph had to resend their applications for having sent retakes of a printed photo.

The 2018 Asian Games are scheduled to be held from Aug. 18 to Sept. 2, 2018 at the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, and Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province.The opening and closing ceremonies of the Games will be held at Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta.