Sikhs in Hockey at Olympic Games
This website is a tribute to the Sikh community that, over the decades, has become synonymous with field hockey and the Olympic Games. The Sikh Olympic saga began with India's debut at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. The team had one Sikh player, Kehar Singh Gill from Punjab. Since then, the community has figured prominently at every Olympic Games as players or coaches or umpires.

Olympic Medal Winning 42 Sikhs

No.

Player

Country

Medal(s) & Year

Some highlights of Sikh’s involvement:

One hundred and thirty two Sikhs have played hockey at Olympic Games since 1928 - representing nine countries (Canada, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Singapore, Tanzania and Uganda).

Members of nine Gold medal teams (8 India and 1 Great Britain), one Silver medal team (India) and three Bronze medal teams (2 India and 1 Great Britain).

Scored 245 goals at Olympic Games. Balbir Singh and Udham Singh of India won 3 Olympic Gold Medals.

1932 Helsinki Olympics: Gurmit Singh Kullar, first Sikh to score an Olympic goal.

1956 Melbourne Olympics: Balbir Singh, first Sikh to captain India. Surjeet Singh Deol captain of Kenya. Udham Singh, top scorer with 15 goals. Gian Singh (India) and Mahan Singh (Kenya) in the umpires panel.

1968 Mexico City Olympics: 13 Sikhs in Indian team with Prithipal and Gurbux as joint captains. 9 Sikhs in the Kenyan team captained by Avtar Singh Sohal.

1972 Munich Olympics: 30 Sikhs represented India, Kenya, Uganda and Malaysia.

India vs Kenya match had 15 Sikh players on the field at the same time (10 for Kenya and 5 for India)

Two Sikh captains - Harmik Singh (India) and Avtar Singh Sohal (Kenya). India won 3 - 2, all five goals by Sikhs. Sikhs scored 35 goals at Munich.

Sikh Hockey Internationals:

We currently have records that show Sikhs have represented 13 countries at hockey, viz: Canada, England, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Scotland, Singapore, Tanzania, Uganda and USA. Information of any other countries which Sikhs have represented will be most appreciated, in particularly from Fiji, Indonesia, Liberia, Thailand and Zambia

Photo of the month - July 2010

Kenya's Pritam Singh Sandhu in action against Great Britain in 1966. Pritam represented Kenya at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games.

An extract from Hockey News, Summer 1966:

Olympic Records:

Sikh players are the holders of the following Olympic Games records:

The record of the most goals scored in an Olympic final is in the hands of India's Balbir Singh 'Senior', who scored five goals in Helsinki on 24th July 1952 when India defeated Holland 6 -1.

India's Ajit Singh scored the fastest goal in Olympic history when he scored after only 15 seconds in the opening match in Montreal 1976 against Argentina on 18th July 1976.

Balbir Singh 'Senior' and Dhyan Chand hold the record of winning three consective Olympic Gold medals and being the Captain of a winning team.

World Cup Results:

Complete World Cup Results are now on the website showing all Sikh players and Officials who played in the 11 World Cups since 1971.

MR D'Souza Gold Cup Winners

The premier tournament in East Africa was the
M.R. D’ Souza Gold Cup organized by The Kenya Goan Sports Association. The annual tournament attracted the world's best teams. Sikh Union Nairobi won the tournament for the first time in 1959 and retained the cup for numerous years. Click the link for a list of past winners.