Padma Shri Balbir Singh - Sikhs The Supreme

Born in 1924 in Haripur (Jalandhar), Balbir Singh Dosanjh's (Senior) name was a terror for the opposing teams. In his time the victory of India was taken for granted if Balbir, one of the best centre forwards in the world, is present on the field. He represented the country in the hockey in three successive Olympics e.g. 1948 (London), 1952 (Helsinki) and 1956 (Melbourne), which is a great achievement in itself, and won the gold medals in all the three Olympics. In 1956 Olympics, he captained the Indian team.

Thus he got distinction of being the first Indian in Hockey of Independent India to take Hat-trick of Gold in Olympics. Not only thus he made India proud by getting his name included in the list of 16 great Olympians of the world of all games since 1896 till date. He is the only Indian sportsperson (Neither Dhyan Chand not Sachin Tendulkar) to get thus distinction.

In 1956, India could win because Balbir gave a surprise to the opposing teams. Due to a fracture in his arm he could not play in the preliminary matches. But he surprisingly appeared on the field in the semifinal against Germany and Germany had to change their strategy to encircle Balbir. But it was of no avail and the opportunity was availed of by the co-forward Udham Singh who scored the goal. The same story was repeated in the final against Pakistan and India won the gold for the sixth time in the Olympics and also Balbir completed his hat-trick in Olympic gold medals.

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