N Ramachandran awarded Olympic Order by IOC President Bach

Rio de Janeiro: President of the Indian Olympic Committee N Ramachandran was on Sunday awarded the Olympic Order for his outstanding services to the Olympic movement.

The Olympic Order is the highest award of the Olympic Movement and is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, that is, recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport.

It was established in May 1975.

The President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, formally presented the award to Ramachandran and congratulated the IOA President, saying the award was in recognition of his contribution to the Indian Olympic Movement.

"I am humbled by the honour and it is indeed one of the best moments of my career in sports administration. I am extremely grateful to the IOC President, Dr Thomas Bach and the IOC Executive Board for choosing me for this award. This award belongs to the entire country," Ramachandran said.

Ramachandran has been actively associated with several sports organisations. He has held several positions of responsibility contributed hugely to the Olympic movement.

He was President of the Indian Triathlon Federation, and later the Secretary General of the Squash Rackets Federation of India. He made Chennai the "Squash capital" of India.

In 2001, he was elected as the President of the Asian Squash Federation and was re-elected to this position in 2005.

Ramachandran was appointed as an Associate Vice President of the Indian Olympic Association in 2001 and elected a Vice-President in 2005.

In 2008, Ramachandran was elected as President of the World Squash Federation. In 2009, he was appointed as Patron of both the Asian Squash Federation and the Squash Rackets Federation of India.

At the WSF AGM in 2012, Ramachandran was re-elected as WSF President for a further four years.

In February 2014, Ramachandran was elected President of the IOA.