Gurjant Singhਗੁਰਜੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ

Gurjant Singh (born 26 January 1995) is a retired Indian field hockey forward from Khailara village in Amritsar district, Punjab. A scorer of big goals in big matches, he won Olympic bronze medals with India at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, gold at the 2016 Junior World Cup in Lucknow and the Hangzhou Asian Games, and the Arjuna Award in 2021. He announced his retirement from international hockey on 27 March 2026, closing a senior career of 130 caps and 33 goals.

Where is Gurjant Singh from?

Gurjant Singh was born on 26 January 1995 in Khailara, a small village in Amritsar-I tehsil of Amritsar district, Punjab, about 25 kilometres from the city of Amritsar. The village, recorded in the Census as Khalhera, had a population of 531 people in 2011. It sits in the Majha region of Punjab, the north-western part of the state that has produced many of India's hockey players.

Nobody in Khailara played hockey when Gurjant was growing up. He first saw the game through his cousins in Batala, about 40 kilometres away, and it was watching them play that drew him to the sport he would make his life.

Early life and the Junior World Cup

Gurjant began playing hockey at the age of nine, after his cousin in Batala introduced him to the game. He later moved to the Chandigarh Hockey Academy, where his pace and sharp instincts in front of goal began to stand out. His performances in the domestic junior circuit earned him a place in the Junior India core group that trained at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru ahead of the 2016 Junior World Cup.

He had already played for India Under-21 on the 6 Nations tour of the Netherlands in 2015 and in the Australian Hockey League, and he was part of the Indian team at the Junior Asia Cup in Kuantan in 2015. At the Junior World Cup in Lucknow in December 2016, Gurjant scored the opening goal in both the semi-final and the final, and India won the title on 18 December 2016. It was the moment that made his name: as he later said, it was after that win that people started noticing him.

Senior debut, setbacks and comeback

Gurjant made his senior international debut in 2017, in a match against Belgium, and later that year he was part of the Indian team that won the Asia Cup in Dhaka. His rise then stalled. A dip in form and injury kept him out of the Indian team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, and he was dropped from the squad for the 2018 World Cup.

He did play at the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat later that year, scoring four or five goals across the tournament, but it was not until 2020 that he began to prove himself again in the senior side. His goal against the Netherlands in the FIH Hockey Pro League that year was the quickest goal India had scored in the competition, and fans voted it the second-best Pro League goal of 2020. Under chief coach Graham Reid he also worked hard on the defensive side of his game, improving his off-ball work so that he could press from the front.

What did Gurjant Singh win at the Olympics?

Gurjant was part of the 16-member Indian squad at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, played in 2021, where India won the bronze medal by beating Germany 5-4 in the bronze-medal match. It was India's first Olympic hockey medal since the gold at Moscow 1980, ending a wait of 41 years. Three years later he was in the squad again at Paris 2024, where India won a second consecutive bronze.

Away from the Olympics he won gold with India at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, and silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

Honours and retirement

Gurjant's honours include the Arjuna Award, which he received in 2021, one of India's highest sporting honours. With India he won gold at the Asia Cup in Dhaka in 2017, the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat in 2018 and again in Chennai in 2023, and gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. He played his club hockey for the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), and earlier turned out for Dabang Mumbai in the Hockey India League.

On 27 March 2026, at the Hockey India Awards ceremony in New Delhi, Gurjant announced his retirement from international hockey. He finished with 130 senior international caps and 33 goals. Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey paid tribute to his pace, energy and ability to score in big moments, and Gurjant said he left the international stage a happy and proud man, treasuring the time spent with his teammates.

Legacy

Gurjant's career is part of the story of Indian hockey's return to the Olympic podium after four decades away. He was a forward who scored when it mattered most: the opening goals in the semi-final and final of the 2016 Junior World Cup, and a place in two Olympic bronze-winning teams.

For young players in Amritsar district, his journey from a village where nobody played hockey to two Olympic podiums is the clearest proof that the game can take a Punjabi boy anywhere. His retirement in March 2026 closed a senior international career that ran from his debut in 2017 to his second Olympic bronze in Paris.