India has returned to the Olympic fold after the IOC lifted a ban on the country's Olympic association, and its athletes will now be able to march behind the Indian flag at the closing ceremony of the Sochi Winter Games.
Three Indian athletes have been competing in Russia under the Olympic flag due to the suspension, imposed after India held a 2012 Olympic Association election in which a corruption-tainted official was voted in as secretary general.
An International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told journalists it's the first time in Olympic history that a suspension of a National Olympic Committee has been lifted during a Games.
Last Sunday the Indian Olympic Association voted in a new set of officials headed by the World Squash Federation chief N. Ramachandran, paving the way for the Olympic reinstatement of the world's second most populous nation.
