Milkha Singh Biography 
Milkha Singh, also known as ‘The Flying Sikh’ is the finest athlete India has ever produced. He is of course a legend and role model to many athletes of India. In 1960 Olympic Games, he finished fourth and his record time of 45.73 became the Indian national record and held for almost 40 years. He is the only male athlete from India who has been able to finish among the fourth. No Indian has been able to win a medal in athletics till now! He is the only Indian male athlete to win an individual athletics gold medal at a Commonwealth Games. He represented India in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
400 metres final at the 1960 Olympic Games is still regarded as one of the historic moments of Indian athletes. Various records were broken in the race. Singh finished fourth with National record and it took 38 years to break that record. Paramjeet Singh broke his record in 1998 by 0.03 seconds bringing the record from 45.73 to 45.70. Since the time of Indian Independence, Milkha Singh is considered as the real sport icon of India.
Milkha Singh was born in 1935 at Govindpura of Muzaffargarh city in Punjab Province, British India. During the partition of India, he lost his parents in the violence that broke in Punjab provinces. A brother and two sisters were also killed. Escaping the troubles in Punjab he moved to Delhi in 1947, but caught and put in Tihar jail for travelling in train without ticket. Later after a series of events he was released and he settled in colony in Shahdara. His brother Malkhan persuaded him to join in army and he won it in his fourth attempt in the year 1951.
He represented India in the 200m and 400m competitions of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. But his inexperience couldn’t make it big. Later he trained himself and did a lot of hard work to improve himself. In 1958, Singh set records for the 200m and 400m in the National Games of India, held at Cuttack. He won gold medals in Asian games (1958 and 1962). His achievement as first gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games from independent India still stands as a record.
Most recently a feature film was made on the real life of this athlete. The movie was titled, ‘Bhag Milka Bhag’, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra on a script written by Prasoon Joshi. Farhan Akhtar played his role and Bhaag Milka Bhaag is India’s official entry to Oscar awards. The movie was super hit and a special screening was done at London for this great legend of Indian sports.
Published: N/A
Updated: October 09, 2013
