Olympic Games:

Balkrishen Singh Grewal represented India at the 1956 Melbourne and 1960 Rome Olympics Games as a player and as India’s Team Coach at the 1968 Mexico City; 1980 Moscow; 1984 Los Angeles and 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

Balkrishen is one of only two Indians (both Sikhs) to have won the Olympic gold medal both as a player and as a coach.

He was a member of the gold medal-winning team in the 1956 Olympics and was chief coach of the team that won the gold in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Balkrishen was the son of Brig. Daleep Singh, who represented India in athletics in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.

A graduate of Punjab University, Balkrishen spent his initial playing days with Indian Railways as a full-back. He captained the Indian Railways team.

Before seriously taking to hockey, Balkrishen shone as an athlete, and broke the Punjab University record in hop, step and jump.

Balkrishen represented Punjab University in hockey for four years in a row from 1950-54. His first international cap was at Warsaw in 1954, and since then he was in the national focus.

He represented India in the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games.

Balkrishen won two national hockey championships with Railways in 1963 and 1964.

After retiring from active hockey, Balkrishen quit Railways and joined the panel of coaches at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, where Dhyan Chand was the chief coach.

He later became the senior coach there.

Balkrishen's first major coaching assignment was with the Australian women's hockey team in 1965. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser went on record praising Balkrishen Singh’s coaching abilities.

Balkrishen returned to India and coached the Indian team in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, 1973 Amsterdam World Cup and the 1974 Teheran Asian Games. In between, he made the time to coach the Combined Universities hockey team in 1969.

After a break, Balkrishen coached the Indian men's team that won the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and the Indian women's team that won the gold in the 1982 Delhi Asian Games.

Balkrishen subsequently coached the Indian team in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

After another break, Balkrishen coached the Indian team in the 1991 Auckland Olympic Qualifier and in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Balkrishen was the first coach to experiment with the concept of total hockey in India, back in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Total hockey, in his view, was hockey which should be played like basketball — the entire team attacks together and defends together.

Balkrishen is the only person to have coached India in 4 different Olympics - 1968, 1980, 1984 and 1992. Of the 45 matches that Balkrishen coached India in the Olympics, World Cup, Champions Trophy and Asian Games, India had a 29W-7L-9D record. Four of the seven losses came in the Barcelona Olympics alone, that being the only dark patch in an otherwise consistent career.

Balkrishen has the best coaching record in Indo-Pak encounters - with 5 wins and 4 draws in 11 matches.

Balkrishen retired as the Director of the National Institute of Sports in Patiala in 1992.

In 2000 he received a Lifetime Achievement award.

Sadly he died on Friday, December 31 2004, in Patiala aged 72.