IOA advisory prompts renaming of North East Olympic Games, body

DIMAPUR — The presidents and secretaries of the state olympic associations from the eight Northeastern states held a virtual meeting on Tuesday to review preparations for the 3rd North East Games, where 16 sports disciplines are scheduled to be held in Nagaland from March 18 to the 23rd.

According to a press release, the meeting, chaired by Abu Metha, working president, North East Sports Association and secretary general of the Nagaland Olympic Association, was attended by representatives from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim. Tripura could not attend.

The meeting resolved that the erstwhile North East Olympic Association would be rechristened as the ‘North East Sports Association’ and the North East Olympic Games would now be called the ‘North East Games’.

This decision has been taken in view of the advisories from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) dated February 28 and March 5, based on the directions of the International Olympic Committee on March 31, 2022, to all its affiliates and federations to refrain from using the term ‘Olympic’ and its logo, as it is copyrighted and a registered trademark protected under the Olympic Charter and belonging to the International Olympic Committee.

It was stated that all material, merchandise, branding, publicity, etc. related to the North East Games will henceforth be used with the new nomenclatures. However, all that has been produced and manufactured prior to this advisory cannot be changed due to a paucity of time and resources.