Name of the sportsperson: Balbir Singh Senior
Discipline: Hockey
State: Punjab
Date of Birth: October 19, 1924
Achievements:
• Won three Olympic gold medals in the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Games.
• Silver medal at the Asian Games 1958 as well as the Asian Games 1962
• First hockey player to be awarded the Padma Shri
Profile:
Balbir Singh Senior was the player of the glorious era of Indian Hockey. He was born on October 19, 1924 at Haripur Khalsa. He was deeply inspired with the Berlin Olympic winning team. He played for Khalsa college team initially and later played for Punjab university and Punjab police.
He made his Olympics debut in the London Olympics 1948 in the second match played against Argentina. India won the match by 9-1 and Balbir scored six out of them, including a hat-trick. In the final match played against Britain, India beat the opponent by 4-0 and Balbir had scored two goals in the match.
At the Helsinki Olympics 1952, Balbir was named the Vice-Captain of the Indian squad with K.D. Singh Babu at the helm. In the semi-final match against Britain, Balbir scored all the three goals scored by India and the team won by 3-1. In the final match against Holland, the Indian team won by 6-1 to lift the gold medal again and Balbir had contributed five goals out of them, including a hat-trick. At the Helsinki Olympics, he had scored a total number of nine goals.
Balbir was the captain of the Indian Hockey team at the Melbourne Olympics 1956.
He represented the Indian Hockey team at Tokyo Asian Games 1958 and Jakarta Asian Games 1962. Balbir also served as the coach of the Indian hockey team for the World Cup Hockey 1971 wherein the team managed to grab a silver medal. Further, he was named the manager of the Indian team participating at the World Cup Hockey 1975.
Balbir Singh Senior was the first sports personality to be honored with the Padma Shri award in the year 1957. He lit the Sacred Flame at the Asian Games 1982 held at New Delhi. In the year 2006, he was named the Best Sikh Hockey Player of All Times. Also, in a poll conducted in the year 1982 he was adjudged to be the Player of the Century.
