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Indian athlete (–)

For the Indian Test cricketer, see A. G. Milkha Singh.

Milkha Singh (20 November – 18 June ),^[a][2] also known as "The Flying Sikh", was an Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army.

He is the only athlete to win gold at metres at the Asian Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. He has won gold medals in the and Asian Games. He represented India in the Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the Summer Olympics in Rome and the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Singh was awarded the Padma Shri in , India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his sporting achievements.

The race for which Singh was best remembered is his fourth-place finish in the metres final at the Olympic Games, which he had entered as one of the favourites. He led the race till the m mark before easing off, allowing others to pass him. Various records were broken in the race, which required a photo-finish and saw American Otis Davis being declared the winner by one-hundredth of a second over German Carl Kaufmann.

Singh's fourth-place time of seconds was the Indian national record for almost 40 years.^[3]

From beginnings that saw him orphaned and displaced during the Partition of India, Singh has become a sporting icon in his country. In , journalist Rohit Brijnath described Singh as "the finest athlete India has ever produced".^[4]

Singh died from complications of COVID on 18 June , at the age of 91, five days after his wife, Nirmal Saini.^[5][6]

Early life

Milkha Singh was born on 20 November , into a SikhRathoreRajput family.^[7] His birthplace was Govindpura,^[8] a village 10 kilometres (&#;mi) from Muzaffargarh city in Punjab Province, British India (now Kot Adu district, Pakistan).

He was one of 15 siblings, eight of whom died before the Partition of India. He was orphaned during the Partition when his parents, a brother and two sisters were killed in the violence that ensued. He witnessed these killings.^{[4][8][9][10]}

Escaping the troubles in Punjab, where killings of Hindus and Sikhs were continuing,^[9] by moving to Delhi, India, in , Singh lived for a short time with the family of his married sister^[8] and was briefly imprisoned at Tihar jail for travelling on a train without a ticket.

His sister, Ishvar, sold some jewellery to obtain his release.^[10][11] He spent some time at a refugee camp in Purana Qila and at a resettlement colony in Shahdara, both in Delhi.^[8]

Milkha became disenchanted with his life and considered becoming a dacoit^[b] but was instead persuaded by one of his brothers, Malkhan, to attempt recruitment to the Indian Army.

He successfully gained entrance on his fourth attempt, in , and while stationed at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Centre^[12] in Secunderabad and he was introduced to athletics. He had run the 10&#;km distance to and from school as a child and was selected by the army for special training in athletics after finishing sixth in a compulsory cross-country run for new recruits.^[9][10] Singh has acknowledged how the army introduced him to sport, saying that "I came from a remote village, I didn't know what running was, or the Olympics".^[4][9]

International career

Milkha represented India in the m and m competitions of the Melbourne Olympic Games.^[13] His inexperience meant that he did not progress from the heat stages but a meeting with the eventual m champion at those Games, Charles Jenkins, both inspired him to greater things and provided him with information about training methods.^[4]

In , Singh set records for the m and m in the National Games of India, held at Cuttack,^[12] and also won gold medals in the same events at the Asian Games.

He then won a gold medal in the m ( yards at this time) competition at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games with a time of seconds.^[11] This latter achievement made him the first gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games from independent India.^[10] Before Vikas Gowda won the gold in , Milkha was the only Indian male to have won an individual athletics gold medal at those Games.^[14]

Singh was persuaded by Jawaharlal Nehru to set aside his memories of the Partition era to race successfully in against Abdul Khaliq in Pakistan, where a post-race comment by the then General Ayub Khan led to him acquiring the nickname of The Flying Sikh.^[c] Some sources say that he set a world record of seconds in France,^[12] shortly before the Rome Olympics in the same year but the official report of the Games lists the record holder as Lou Jones, who ran at Los Angeles in ^[15] At those Olympics, he was involved in a close-run final race in the m competition, where he was placed fourth.^[9][10] Singh had beaten all the leading contenders other than Otis Davis, and a medal had been anticipated because of his good form.

However, he made an error when leading the race at m, slowing down in the belief that his pace could not be sustained and looking round at his fellow competitors. Singh believes that these errors caused him to lose his medal opportunity and they are his "worst memory".^[12] Davis, Carl Kaufmann and Malcolm Spence all passed him, and a photo-finish resulted.

Davis and Kaufman were both timed at a world-record breaking seconds, while Spence and Singh went under the pre-Games Olympic record of seconds, set in by George Rhoden and Herb McKenley, with times of and seconds, respectively.^[15][11]The Age noted in that "Milkha Singh is the only Indian to have broken an Olympic track record.

Milka biography summary Retrieved 13 July Archived from the original on 22 July Next Article An year-old man in Portland dies after being attacked at a bus stop, police say. However, he made an error when leading the race at m, slowing down in the belief that his pace could not be sustained and looking round at his fellow competitors.

Unfortunately he was the fourth man to do so in the same race"^[16] but the official Olympic report notes that Davis had already equalled the Rhoden/McKenley Olympic record in the quarter-finals and surpassed it with a time of seconds in the semi-finals.^[15]

At the Asian Games, held in Jakarta, Singh won gold in the m^[11] and in the 4 x m relay.^[17] He attended the Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he was entered to compete in the m, the 4 x m relay and the 4 x m relay.^[18] He did not take part in either the m^[19] or the 4 x m relay^[d] and the Indian team of Milkha Singh, Makhan Singh, Amrit Pal and Ajmer Singh were eliminated when they finished fourth in the heat stages of the 4 x m.^[21]

There have been claims that Singh won 77 of his 80 races,^[12] but these are spurious.

The number of races in which he participated is not verified, nor is the number of victories, but he lost a m race at the National Games in Calcutta to Makhan Singh^[22] and he did not finish first in any of his four races at the Olympic Games^[15] or the aforementioned qualification races at the Olympics.^[23]

Singh's time in the Olympics m final, which was run on a cinder track, set a national record that stood until when Paramjit Singh exceeded it on a synthetic track and with fully automatic timing that recorded seconds.

Although Singh's Olympic result of seconds had been hand-timed, an electronic system at those Games had determined his record to be ^[24]

Personal life

As of ^[update], Singh lived in Chandigarh.^[25] He met Nirmal Saini, a former captain of the Indian women's volleyball team in Ceylon in ; they married in ^[8] and had three daughters and a son, the golfer Jeev Milkha Singh.

In , they adopted the seven-year-old son of Havildar Bikram Singh, who had died in the Battle of Tiger Hill.^[12]

Later life and death

Singh was promoted from the rank of sepoy to junior commissioned officer in recognition of his successes in the Asian Games.^[26][e] He subsequently became Director of Sports in Punjab Ministry of Education,^[12] a post he retired from in ^[24] Also in , he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, following his success in ^[27]

In , he turned down an offer of the Arjuna Award from the Indian government, arguing that it was intended to recognise young sports people and not those such as him.

He also thought that the award was being inappropriately given to people who had little notable involvement as active sports people at all, and had become devalued.^[27][28] While sharing his experience in a college in Goa in , he stated, "I rejected the Arjuna I was offered after I received the Padma Shri.

It was like being offered an SSC [secondary school] certificate after securing a Masters degree."^[29]

All of Singh's medals have been donated to the nation.

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They were displayed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi and later moved to a sports museum in Patiala,^[12] where a pair of running shoes that he wore in Rome are also displayed.^[30] In , he donated the Adidas shoes that he had worn in the m final to be sold in a charity auction organised by actor Rahul Bose.^[25]

Singh was admitted to the intensive care unit at Fortis Hospital in Mohali on 24 May with pneumonia caused by COVID His condition was, for a while, described as stable, but he died on 18 June at &#;pm in Chandigarh.^[31] His wife, Nirmal Saini, had died a few days earlier on 13 June , also due to COVID^[32] Singh was laid on his funeral pyre with a photo of his wife in his hands.^[33]

Media and popular culture

Singh and his daughter, Sonia Sanwalka, co-wrote his autobiography, titled The Race of My Life.

It was published in ^[34] The book inspired^[35]Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, a biographical film of Singh's life.^[36][37][38] The film is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and stars Farhan Akhtar in the title role, with Sonam Kapoor, Meesha Shafi and Divya Dutta in female lead roles.

The film was widely acclaimed in India and won awards including the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the National Film Awards,^[39] and 5 awards at the International Indian Film Academy Awards in ^[40] The film made over ₹ crores.^[41] Singh sold the movie rights for one rupee but inserted a clause stating that a share of the profits would be given to the Milkha Singh Charitable Trust.^[9] The Trust was founded in with the aim of assisting poor and needy sportspeople.^[42]

In September , Singh's wax statue – created by sculptors of Madame Tussauds in London – was unveiled at Chandigarh.

It depicts Singh in running posture during his victorious run at the Commonwealth Games.^[43] The statue is placed at Madame Tussauds museum in New Delhi, India.^[44] After winning India's first track and field gold medal at the Olympics, Neeraj Chopra dedicated his victory to Singh.^[45]

Records and honours

Awards

Honours

See also

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links