5 goals in an Olympic final, hat-trick of gold medals, Olympic winning Indian captain; Celebrating Balbir Singh Sr.'s birth anniversary

On the 31st of December in 1923, Balbir Singh Sr., was born in Haripur Khalsa of Punjab, who won a Hat-trick of gold medals for India in Hockey at the Olympics, the third of them as the captain of the team. He holds the record for the most number of goals in an Olympic final (5) against Netherlands in 1952.

Balbir Singh Sr. was also the coach when India won the Bronze and Gold medals in the 1971 and 1975 World Cups respectively. Balbir is regarded to be one of the greatest Hockey players of all-time. He is considered as the greatest centre forward the sport has ever seen irrespective of the nature of the surface.

Singh played 61 matches at the highest level and scored a whopping 261 goals. At the Olympics, he played 8 matches and scored a whopping 23 goals. His all-time best performance was against the Netherlands in the final of the Helsinki Olympics where he netted 5 goals to win the match for India.

Balbir Singh Sr.'s legacy in Hockey

Balbir was termed the modern-day Dhyan Chand by many for his insane ability to score goals. From London 1948 to Melbourne 1956, India won a hat-trick of gold medals in Hockey at the Olympics. Singh Sr. was a part of the Indian team in all three instances.

While he was a pure player in London Olympics in 1948, Balbir was the vice captain of the team in Helsinki in the 1952 Olympics, and eventually became the captain of the team in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Apart from being a highly successful player, the former Indian captain was a successful coach as well.

In the 1970s, Balbir Singh was the Indian coach. In 1971, the first-ever Hockey World Cup took place, Balbir was the coach of the team which won the Bronze medal. India gave a better performance in 1975 by winning the gold medal. On the 25th of May in 2020, Singh passed away in Mohali at the age of 96.