Singh, Milkha

Milkha Singh, byname the Flying Sikh, (born October 17, 1935, Lyallpur [now Faisalabad], Pakistan—died June 18, 2021, Chandigarh, India), Indian track-and-field athlete who became the first Indian male to reach the final of an Olympic athletics event when he placed fourth in the 400-metre race at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

Orphaned during the partition of India, Singh moved to India from Pakistan in 1947. He eked out a living by working in a roadside restaurant before joining the Indian army. It was in the army that Singh realized his abilities as a sprinter. After winning the national trials in the 200-metre and 400-metre sprints, he was eliminated during the preliminary heats for those events at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.

At the 1958 Asian Games, Singh won both the 200-metre and 400-metre races. Later that year he captured the 400-metre gold at the Commonwealth Games, which was India’s first athletics gold in the history of the Games. He narrowly lost the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, missing out on third place in a photo finish. Singh retained his 400-metre gold at the 1962 Asian Games and also took another gold as part of India’s 4 × 400-metre relay team. He made a final Olympic appearance at the 1964 Tokyo Games as part of the national 4 × 400 team that failed to advance past preliminary heats.

Singh was awarded the Padma Shri (one of India’s highest civilian honours) in 1959. After his retirement he served as the director of sports in Punjab. Singh’s autobiography, The Race of My Life (cowritten with his daughter Sonia Sanwalka), was published in 2013.