Milkha Singhਮਿਲਖਾ ਸਿੰਘ

Early life

Milkha Singh was born on 20 November 1929 in Govindpura, a village in the Punjab that now lies in Pakistan. He was one of fifteen children in a poor Sikh family. When Partition tore the subcontinent apart in 1947, the teenage Milkha watched his parents and several siblings killed in the communal violence. He fled alone, hiding in forests and clinging to trains, until he reached Delhi, where he lived in refugee camps and drifted into petty crime, spending time in jail.

An elder brother serving in the Indian Army urged him to enlist, and in 1951 Milkha joined up. It was in the army that a coach noticed his raw speed and put him on the track. Training with obsessive discipline, he rose quickly through service athletics, and by 1956, at the age of twenty-one, he was selected to represent India at the Melbourne Olympics, running in the heats of the 200 and 400 metres.

Rise to fame

The breakthrough came in 1958. At the Asian Games in Tokyo, Milkha won gold in both the 200 and 400 metres. Months later, at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, he won the 440 yards in a national-record time, becoming the first Indian male athlete to win Commonwealth gold. India had found its first track hero, and the young sprinter's upright, powerful running style made him instantly recognisable.

In 1960 he travelled to Lahore for a much-publicised race against Pakistan's champion Abdul Khaliq, whom he defeated. Pakistan's president, General Ayub Khan, is said to have told him, "You did not run, you flew," and the nickname "the Flying Sikh" stuck for life.

The Rome Olympics

At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Milkha entered the 400 metres final as one of the favourites. He led the field through the first 200 metres before easing off slightly, a moment's hesitation that let his rivals past. The race needed a photo finish: America's Otis Davis won in a world-record time, with Germany's Carl Kaufmann a hundredth of a second behind. Milkha finished fourth in 45.73 seconds.

Fourth place was heartbreak, but the time stood as the Indian national record for almost forty years. He returned to defend his Asian Games 400 metres title in Jakarta in 1962, adding gold in the 4x400 metres relay, and ran once more at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 before retiring from international athletics.

Later life

In 1959 Milkha had been awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honours. He married Nirmal Kaur, a former captain of India's women's volleyball team, and they raised four children, including the golfer Jeev Milkha Singh. He served as director of sports in Punjab and devoted his later years to mentoring young athletes.

In 2013 his life story reached the screen in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, starring Farhan Akhtar. Milkha sold the film rights for a single rupee, with a share of the profits going to the charitable trust he had founded to help needy sportspersons. The film was a critical and commercial success and introduced his story to a new generation.

Legacy

Milkha Singh died in Chandigarh on 18 June 2021 from complications of COVID-19, just five days after his wife Nirmal succumbed to the same illness. He was ninety-one. Tributes poured in from across the country, with the prime minister calling him a colossal sportsperson who had captured the nation's imagination.

For decades he was the benchmark against which Indian athletics measured itself: the orphan of Partition who ran his way from a refugee camp to the Olympic final. Journalist Rohit Brijnath once called him the finest athlete India had ever produced, and the title has rarely been disputed.