Milkha Singh was born at Govindpura in what is now Pakistan. In 1947 most of his family was killed in front of him. He was about fifteen and reached Delhi as a refugee, alone.
He joined the army in 1951 at the fourth attempt, was noticed running, and became the outstanding Indian athlete of his generation. He won gold at the Asian Games in 1958 and 1962, and gold at the Commonwealth Games in 1958, the first Indian to win a Commonwealth athletics title.
At the Rome Olympics in 1960 he finished fourth in the 400 metres in 45.73 seconds, a national record that stood for thirty-eight years. He led at 250 metres, looked back, and lost the medal in the last stretch. He said afterward that it was the worst moment of his life.
He was called the Flying Sikh by General Ayub Khan after a race at Lahore in 1960.
He refused to return to Pakistan for years and then went, and visited his village. He died at Chandigarh in 2021.
A boy who watched his family killed and walked out of Pakistan became the fastest quarter-miler in Asia. He was never sentimental about it and said repeatedly that he ran to eat.
He lost his parents in 1947 in Muzaffargarh district and came east alone as a boy, and he joined the army because it fed him.
He won gold at the Asian Games in 1958 and 1962 and at the Commonwealth Games in 1958, and he came fourth in the four hundred metres at Rome in 1960 in a photo finish.
The name Flying Sikh was given to him in Pakistan, at a meet in Lahore, by a crowd watching him run. He died in 2021.