Milkha Singh - The Flying Sikh

Former Indian track and field sprinter Milkha Singh became the first male athlete from India to win a gold medal in individual athletics at a Commonwealth Games.

According to Pakistani archives, Milkha Singh was born on November 20, 1929; however, official records also indicate that she was born on October 17, 1935, and November 20, 1935. In Punjab, he was born into a Sikh Rathore Rajput family. Govindpura, a village in Punjab Province located ten kilometres from Muzaffargarh city, is where he was born.

Out of his fifteen siblings, eight passed away prior to India's partition.While he was still in his teens, India was divided. As he lay dying, his father yelled to Milkha, "Bhaag, Milkha"—"run for your life, Milkha." In 1947 he fled to Delhi. 

For a brief period, Milkha Singh resided with her married sister and spent time in Tihar jail for using a train without a ticket. Ishvar, his sister, sold some jewels to pay for his release. After losing so many family members, he was deeply depressed and disillusioned, and he gave serious thought to becoming a dacoit. One of his brothers, nevertheless, suggested that he enlist in the army.He was turned down three times to enlist in the army. It was on his fourth try that he was finally selected. He first became interested in athletics while stationed at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Centre in Secunderabad in 1951.

In 1955, he got married to Nirmal Kaur, the captain of the Indian women's volleyball team, in 1962. There are three daughters and one son in the relationship. A well-known golfer, Jeev Milkha Singh, is his son. The seven-year-old son of a soldier who lost his life in the Battle of Tiger Hill was adopted by the couple in 1999.

Milkha Singh Carrier Highlights:-

• He used to run the 10 km to his school when he was a little child living in a rural area. His early jogging habit helped him place sixth in the new recruits' mandatory cross-country run. The army chose him for specialised athletic training.
• Until Krishna Poonia won the gold medal in the discus at the 2010 Commonwealth games, he was the sole Indian athlete to win a gold medal in individual athletics at a Commonwealth games.

• In 1959, the Indian President bestowed upon Milkha Singh the Padma Shri Award in recognition of his athletic accomplishments.

• In the 1962 Asian Games, he won gold in the 400-meter sprint and the 4x400-meter relay.

• The event for which Milkha Singh is most known is his fourth-place result in the Olympic 400-meter final in 1960.

• He frequently used racing against metre gauge trains as self-training while serving in the army. During his practice sessions, he would occasionally train himself so hard that he would vomit blood, spit blood, and even pass out.

• At the Melbourne Summer Olympics in 1956, the Rome Summer Olympics in 1960, and the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 1964, he competed on behalf of India.

• Milkha became the first person from Independent India to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, 1958.He took home gold in the Asian Games' 200- and 400-meter competitions, as well as gold in the Commonwealth Games' 440-yard competition.

• In 2001, he declined to accept the esteemed Arjuna Award, claiming it was given "40 years too late."

• Rakeysh Ompprakash Mehra, a film producer, offered him just Re. 1 so he could begin work on his biopic, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

• President Ayub Khan of Pakistan gave him the nickname "The Flying Sikh" when he beat Abdul Khaliq, the gold medallist in the 100 metres in the Tokyo Asian Games, in a race in 1962.
• The nation received the medals that Milkha Singh had contributed. All of those were eventually moved to a sports museum in Patiala after first being on show at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. His Rome-worn pair of shoes is on display at the sports museum. Singh donated the pair of Adidas shoes he used in the 1960 400-meter final to a charity auction that Rahul Bose organised in 2012.

Singh was elevated from the rank of sepoy to junior commissioned officer in honour of his achievements at the 1958 Asian Games. In the end, he was appointed Director of Sports in the Ministry of Education of Punjab. In 1998, he announced his retirement. All of Milkha Singh's medals, which were formerly on display at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi before being relocated to a sports museum in Patiala, have been presented to the country. In 2003, he established the Milkha Singh Charitable Trust to support underprivileged athletes.