caption children religion birth_place nationality article_title sport birth_date nickname residence spouse image employer name
milkha singh at chandigarh golf club in 2012 1 son jeev milkha singh & 3 daughters sikh govindpura , punjab , british india indian milkha singh
 track and field ca. 1930s the flying sikh chandigarh , india nirmal kaur milkha singh.jpg retired of punjab , india ; formerly of the indian army and government milkha singh
milkha singh

milkha singh -lrb- born around the 1930s -rrb- , also known as the flying sikh , is a former indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the indian army .
he was the only indian male athlete to win an individual athletics gold medal at a commonwealth games until vikas gowda won the discus gold medal at the 2014 commonwealth games .
he also won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 asian games .
he represented india in the 1956 summer olympics in melbourne , the 1960 summer olympics in rome and the 1964 summer olympics in tokyo .
he was awarded the padma shri , india 's fourth-highest civilian honour , in recognition of his sporting achievements .
the race for which singh is best remembered is his fourth-place finish in the 400 metres final at the 1960 olympic games , which he had entered as one of the favourites .
he led the race till the 200m mark before easing off , allowing others to pass him .
various records were broken in the race , which required a photo-finish and saw american otis davis being declared the winner by one-hundredth of a second over german carl kaufmann .
singh 's fourth-place time of 45.73 became the indian national record and held for almost 41 years .
from beginnings that saw him orphaned and displaced during the partition of india , singh has become a sporting icon in his country .
in 2008 , journalist rohit brijnath described singh as `` the finest athlete india has ever produced '' .
in july 2012 , `` the independent '' said that `` india 's most revered olympian is a gallant loser '' and noted the paucity of success -- 20 medals -- achieved by indian competitors in the olympic games despite the country having a population in excess of one billion .
