Bahadur Singh Chouhan won the shot put at two Asian Games, in Bangkok in 1978 and Delhi in 1982, and then spent a quarter of a century as chief coach of the Indian athletics team. Under his watch India won 20 track and field medals at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, the country’s best haul at the Games in decades.
Name: Bahadur Singh Chouhan
Born: 8 February 1946
Sport: Athletics
Event: Shot put
The thrower
Bahadur Singh was born on 8 February 1946 into a Sikh Rajput family. He was a big man, around 105 kilograms, with a fast, powerful glide across the circle. His first Asian Games came in Tehran in 1974, where he won silver. Sriram Singh, the 800m runner, has recalled that both of them began their Asian Games careers at those Games.
He then won gold at the 1975 Asian Championships in Seoul, and in 1976 set his personal best of 18.66 metres.
Two Asian Games golds
At the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok he won the shot put gold, and four years later he won it again in front of a home crowd in Delhi. Between 1973 and 1985 he collected medals at five Asian Championships: bronze in 1973, gold in 1975, bronze in 1979, silver in 1981 and bronze in 1985. He competed at the 1978 Commonwealth Games and finished 15th at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Chief coach
In 1980 he completed the coaching diploma at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala, and he went on to become the national chief coach for athletics, a post he held for 25 years. India won a dozen athletics medals, including two golds, at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta the team won 20 medals, eight of them gold.
His contract ended on 30 June 2020. The Sports Ministry did not extend it because national camp coaches were limited to the age of 70, and he was 74. The Athletics Federation of India praised his calm approach and his willingness to accept new ideas.
Honours
Bahadur Singh received the Arjuna Award in 1976, the Padma Shri in 1983 and the Dronacharya Award for coaching in 1998.
Career record and honours
- Asian Games gold medal, shot put: Bangkok 1978, Delhi 1982
- Asian Games silver medal, shot put: Tehran 1974
- Asian Championships: gold 1975; silver 1981; bronze 1973, 1979, 1985
- Olympic appearance: Moscow 1980
- Personal best: 18.66m (1976)
- National chief athletics coach for 25 years, to 2020
- Arjuna Award (1976), Padma Shri (1983), Dronacharya Award (1998)
