Milkha Singh

Sardar Milkha Singh (20 November 1929 18 June 2021), 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 first Indian athlete to win gold at 400 metres at the Asian Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. He has won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games. He represented India in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Singh was awarded the Padma Shri in 1959, 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 400 metres final at the 1960 Olympic Games, which he had entered as one of the favourites. He led the race till the 200 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 45.73 seconds was the Indian national record for almost 40 years.

From beginnings that saw him orphaned and displaced during the Partition of India, Singh has become a sporting icon in his country. In 2008, journalist Rohit Brijnath described Singh as "the finest athlete India has ever produced".

Singh died from complications of COVID-19 on 18 June 2021, at the age of 91, five days after his wife, Nirmal Saini.

Early life Milkha Singh was born on 20 November 1929, into a Sikh Rathore Rajput family. His birthplace was Govindpura,

Escaping the troubles in Punjab, where killings were continuing, He spent some time at a refugee camp in Purana Qila and at a resettlement colony in Shahdara, both in Delhi. His inexperience meant that he did not progress from the heat stages but a meeting with the eventual 400 m champion at those Games, Charles Jenkins Sr., both inspired him to greater things and provided him with information about training methods.

Singh won the British AAA Championships title at the 1960 AAA Championships. Singh was persuaded by Jawaharlal Nehru to set aside his memories of the Partition era to race successfully in 1960 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. (On Singh's 1960 victory over Abdul Khaliq in Pakistan, Ayub Khan, then President of Pakistan, told Singh that "You didn't run today, you flew".) 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 45.5 seconds in the semi-finals. He attended the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he was entered to compete in the 400 m, the 4 × 100 m relay and the 4 × 400 m relay. He did not take part in either the 400 m or the 4 × 100 m relay 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 × 400 m.

There have been claims that Singh won 77 of his 80 races, and he did not finish first in any of his four races at the 1960 Olympic Games or the aforementioned qualification races at the 1956 Olympics.

Singh's time in the 1960 Summer Olympics 400 m final, which was run on a cinder track, set a national record that stood until 1998 when Paramjit Singh exceeded it on a synthetic track and with fully automatic timing that recorded 45.70 seconds. Although Singh's Olympic result of 45.6 seconds had been hand-timed, an electronic system at those Games had determined his record to be 45.73.

Personal life , Singh lived in Chandigarh. He met Nirmal Saini, a former captain of the Indian women's volleyball team in Ceylon in 1955; they married in 1962 and had three daughters and a son, the golfer Jeev Milkha Singh. In 1999, they adopted the seven-year-old son of Havildar Bikram Singh, who had died in the Battle of Tiger Hill. (Promotion in recognition of bringing glory to the nation continues today.) Some cricketers attain the rank of honorary colonel and in 2012 Singh was outspoken in his desire to see promotion for Vijay Kumar, who had won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. a post he retired from in 1998. While sharing his experience in a college in Goa in 2014, 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."

All of Singh's medals have been donated to the nation. They were displayed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi and later moved to a sports museum in Patiala, In 2012, he donated the Adidas shoes that he had worn in the 1960 400 m final to be sold in a charity auction organised by actor Rahul Bose. His wife, Nirmal Saini, had died a few days earlier on 13 June 2021, also due to COVID-19. Singh was laid on his funeral pyre with a photo of his wife in his hands.

In November 2025, director and actor Farhan Akhtar, who portrayed Singh in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, shared to Aap Ki Adalat host Rajat Sharma that "His daughter rang me up in Mumbai and said doctors said her father was in his last stage. I requested her to give the phone to her dad. I spoke to Milkha ji for the last time on the phone."

Media and popular culture Singh and his daughter, Sonia Sanwalka, co-wrote his autobiography, titled The Race of My Life. It was published in 2013. The book inspired Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, a 2013 biographical film of Singh's life. 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, and 5 awards at the International Indian Film Academy Awards in 2014. The film made over crores. 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.

In September 2017, 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 1958 Commonwealth Games. The statue is placed at Madame Tussauds museum in New Delhi, India. After winning India's first track and field gold medal at the 2020 Olympics, Neeraj Chopra dedicated his victory to Singh.

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