Milkha Singh Rathore Rajput ( Rajput Soorme )

Milkha Singh Rathore ( A Great Rajput )

Milkha Singh was born on 21 November 1929 according to records in Pakistan. But Indian Official records states 17 October 1935. He born in a Rathore Rajput family of village Govindpura in Muzaffargarh Distt. Of Pakistan. He was one of 15 siblings of his family whose eight members were killed during Partition of India. He remained orphan after 1947. He eyewitnessed killings of his parents, one brother and two sisters in the 1947 partition. After escape from 1947 mascare Milkha Singh lived for a short time with in-laws of his married sister. He was imprisoned in TIihar Jail for travelling on a train without a ticket. His sister, Ishvar, sold some jewellery to get him released from jail. He spent some time at a refugee camp in purana quila and in a resettelment coloney of Shahdra.

For all these happenings Milkha Singh became disenchanted with his life and considered becoming a decoit but was persuaded by his brother Malkhan Singh, to make an attempt of recruitment in Indian Army. He successfully gained entrance on his fourth attempt, in 1951. He represented India in the 200m and 400m race competitions of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. His inexperience meant that he did not progress from the heat stages but a meeting with the eventual 400m champion at those Games.

In 1958, Milkha Singh set records for the 200m and 400m in National Games of India held at Cuttak and also won gold medals in same events at the Asian Games. He then won a gold medal in the 400m (440 yards at this time) competition at the in 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth games with a time record of 46.6 seconds. This was the first gold medal for Indipendent India in Commonwealth Games. After this it happened in 2014 when Viks Gowda won gold medal in Common Wealth games. Milkha Singh Rathore was the only Indian male to won an individual athletics gold medal in those Games. Milkha Singh was appriciated by Prime Minister. In year 1960 his memories of partition were re-wakened when he competed runner Abdul Khaliq in Pakistan, where a post race comment by General Ayub Khan led Milkha singh to acqiure name as ‘Flying Sikh’. Some sources say that he set a world record of 45.8 seconds in France, shortly before the Rome Olympics in the same year but the official report of the Games lists the record holder as Lou Jones, who ran in 45.2 seconds at Los Angeles in 1956. The real reason for Milkha Singh to be extremely popular among the people was that Milkha Singh had long hair and beard. People in Rome did not seen ever any athlete with long hair on head. They thought the man was a saint. So they wondered how a saint could run so fast. In addition to that none in Rome had any knowledge about Sikhism. The people often came to Milkha Singh and asked why he grew long hair. What is a Sikh, what is Sikhism, they hardly understood anything about the young religion. Milkha Singh enlightened them as much as he could. Yet the people remained as curious as ever.

At those Olympics, he was involved in a close-run final race in the 400m competition, where he was placed fourth. Milkha Singh had beaten all the leading contenders other than Otis Davis, and a medal had been anticipated because of his good form. However, he made an error when leading the race at 250m, slowing down in the belief that his pace could not be sustained and looking round at his fellow competitors. Milkha Singh believes that these errors caused him to lose his medal opportunity and those are in his "worst memory". Davis, Carl Kaufmann and Malcolm Spence all passed him, and a photo-finish resulted. Davis and Kaufman were both timed at a world-record breaking 44.9 seconds, while Spence and Milkha Singh went under the pre-Games Olympic record of 45.9 seconds, set in 1952 by George Rhoden and Herb McKenley, with times of 45.5 and 45.6 seconds, respectively. The Age noted in 2006 that "Milkha Singh is the only Indian to have broken an Olympic track record. Unfortunately he was the fourth man to do so in the same race 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.

Milkha Singh (The Flying Sikh) can be described as one of the most extraordinary athletes of his times. Milkha Singh was a genius and a genius is never trained. Without any formal training, without any financial reward and without any emotional support he achieved big goals. His mates (Athletes of army) narrates that while practising of running Milkha Singh Rathore was not stopping his running till he become un-concious. So many times his friends brought him from lonly places by mechanical convinces.

At the 1962 Asian Games, held in Jkarta, Milkha Singh won gold in the 400m and in the 4X400 relay. He attended the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he was entered to compete in the 400m, the the 4x400m relay. He did not take part in either the 400m or the 4x100m relay and the Indian team of Milkha Singh, Makhan Singh, Amrit Pal and Ajmer Singh was eliminated when they finished fourth in the heat stages of the 4x400m.

He made proud by winning 77 of his 80 races, but these are spurious. The number of races in which he participated is not verified, nor is the number of victories, but he lost a 400m race at the 1964 National Games in Kolkata to Makhan Singh 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.

Milkha Singh’s time in the 1960 Olympics 400m final, which was run on a cinder track, set a national record that stood until 1998 when Paramjit Singh exceeded it on a synthatic track and with fully automatic time. That recorded 45.70 seconds. Although Milkha 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.

Milkha Singh was promoted from the rank of sepoy to Junior Commissioned Officer in recognition of his successes in the 1958 Asian Games. He subsequently became Director of Sports in the Punjab Ministery of Education from which post he had retired by 1998. Milkha Singh is sad to find that his exploits and achievements have not gone so far to inspire the younger generation. He is critical of the young athletes who aspire to reach the top via short cut and refuse to sweat out in the field. The government offers a number of facilities, there are a number of awards and scholarships, professional colleges offer seats to sportsman, jobs are secured for them, yet sportsmen of high order never emerge. It is the age of mediocrity.

Milkha Singh was awarded Padam Shri by following his success in 1958. In 2001, he turned down an offer of the Arjun Award from the Indian government, arguing that it was intended to recognise young sports people and not those such as him. He also described that the Awards were being inappropriately given to those people who had little notable involvement as active sports. He said that "I have been clubbed with sportspersons who are nowhere near the level that I had achieved" and that the award had become devalued. While sharing his wealth of experience in a college in Goa on 25 August 2014, he also said, "The awards nowdays are distributed like 'prasad' in a temple. Why should one be honoured when he or she has not achieved the benchmark for the award? I rejected the Arjuna award because It was offered after I received the Padma Shri. It was like being offered an SSC certificate after securing a Masters degree.

Milkha Singh donated all his medals to nation. Those were displayed at the Jawahar Lal Stadium in New Delhi but later transfered to a sports museum in Patiala, Where a pair of running shoes that he wore in Rome are also displayed. In 2012, he donated his adidas shoes that he had worn in the 1960 400m final to a charity auction organised by actor Rahul Bose.

He met Nirmal Kaur a former captain of the Indian women's volleyball team in Cylone in 1955. They married in 1962 and have three daughters and a son, the golfer Jeev Milkha Singh. In 1999, they adopted the seven-year-old son of Havildar Bikram Singh, who gor martyr in the Battle of Tiger Hill.