The Greatest Indian Olympian: Balbir Singh Sr.
The Greatest Indian Olympian: Balbir Singh Sr.
The Spirit sports team is excited to highlight some of the many accomplishments of one of the greatest Indian field hockey players, Olympians and Padma Shri recipients, Balbir Singh Sr. Balbir Singh Dosanjh was born on the 31st of December 1923, in Punjab, India. He was inspired and pulled into hockey by watching the newsreel of the 1936 Olympic Gold medal winning Indian team. He was hand-picked and developed by the Olympic Gold-winning coach, Harbail Singh. As a captain of the Punjab University hockey team, Balbir Singh won three consecutive All India Inter-University titles in 1943, ‘44 and ‘45. After the partition of India in 1947, Singh moved to Ludhiana and played for Punjab Police team till 1961. Singh’s greatest Olympic journey began at the 1948 London Olympic Games in a match against Argentina. In the gold medal match against Great Britain, Singh scored two goals and India won, 4-0. As a vice-captain of the 1952 Olympic team, Singh was India’s flag bearer in the opening ceremony. Five goals scored by Singh at the gold medal match against Netherlands set the Olympic record for most goals scored by an individual in men’s Olympic finals. He scored nine of the India’s total 13 goals at the 1952 Olympics. Singh was the captain of the 1956 Olympics gold medal winning team at Melbourne, Australia. He was the manager and chief coach of the 1975 World Cup winning team. Singh passed away at the age of 96 on May 25, 2020. India honored Singh in 1957 by awarding the prestigeous Padma Shri Award. A true icon!
