Although he claimed to have been ignorant about the sport of running or the Olympics due to his rustic upbringing till his recruitment in the Indian Army, India’s legendary sprinter Milkha Singh’s life was a constant race that ended on Friday, June 18, 2021, when he crossed the final fishing line to eternity.
Fondly known as the ‘Flying Sikh’, the celebrated sprinter breathed his last at the PG, Chandigarh, where he was admitted after testing positive for COVID-19, five days after his wife Nirmal’s demise. Initiated into the sport of sprinting post his selection in the Indian Army in 1951, Singh used to run through the 10 kilometer between his school and home as a child.
He was born into a Sikh family comprising 14 siblings besides him (totaling 15 children), on November 20, 1929. While, eight of his siblings died in the pre-Partition era, his parents, a brother and two sisters were brutally murdered in front of his eyes during the violence that ensued after the Partition.
Despite moving to Delhi in 1947, where he lived with the family of one of his married sisters, Milkha’s life saw various ups and downs that left him completely disillusioned with life. However, his life changed for the better when after four attempts, he was successfully recruited in the Indian Army.
It was during his stint at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Centre in Secunderabad that he was introduced to athletics. The army recognized his talent as a sprinter during a compulsory cross-country run for new recruits and selected him for special training in athletics.
The year 1958 witnessed Singh set records for the 200m and 400m in the National Games of India, held at Cuttack. He won gold medals in the same at the Asian Games, besides bagging a gold medal in the 400 m event in 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games clocking 46.6 seconds. He was the first gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games from independent India.
Milkha Singh won gold in the 400 m and in the 4 x 400m relay at the 1962 Asian Games held at Jakarta. Milkha Singh and two others attended the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where they were entered to compete in the 400 m, 4 x 100m relay and the 4 x 400m relay. They finished fourth in the heat stages of the 4 x 400m. Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award was conferred on him following his success in 1958.
Singh documented his struggles and achievements in his auto-biography ‘The Race of My Life’, which he co-authored with his daughter Sonia Sanwalka. Bollywood celebrated the late sports icon’s achievements with a bio-pic ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The film featured Farhan Akhta, Divya Dutta and Sonam Kapoor, grossing Rs 100 crores and bagging the International Indian Film Academy Awards in 2014. His wax statue, sculpted by the sculptors of Madame Tussauds Museum in London, graces its Indian offshoot in New Delhi.