Indian Olympian Milkha Singh dies at age of 91 due to COVID-19

On Friday at PGIMER “Flying Sikh”, Milkha Singh lost his battle with the COVID-19 virus. He was affected by the coronavirus 30 days before. During this 30 days time period, he lost his Wife, former captain of Indian Volleyball Team Nirmal Kaur, due to the same COVID-19 virus.

On May 30th, 91 years old Milkha Singh was discharged, but on June 3, due to the decreasing level of oxygen, Milkha Singh had been taken to the COVID-10 ward of Nehru Hospital Extension at PGIMER.

Milkha Singh was recorded negative for COVID-19 earlier this week, due to which he was shifted to medical ICU from COVID ICU at PGIMER. Unfortunately, his health condition took a sudden turn and became worse. He was a former 400 m Indian athlete.

His family said that it had been an extreme sadness that they would inform that Milkha Singh Ji passed away.

Milkha Singh was born in Gobindpura that is in Pakistan, in the present days. Milkha Sing had been the first track and field athlete who won the gold medal in Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958, and at that time, he was the first Indian to win gold during the British Empire. He holds this record for more than 50 years till discus thrower Krishna Poonia got gold at the 2010 CWG in Delhi.

In 2019, Singh had celebrated his 90th birthday with family members at his Sector 8 residence in Chandigarh while talking to media told him that it had been a special day for him and the whole family, but celebrations could wait. The reason he has been here to saw that day had been his fitness regime, and that’s what he follows at the start of the day. That has been like a prayer for an athlete like him, and he believed that as long as a person is fit, he would remain active. He wanted people to be passionate about fitness. Whether that has been working people or senior citizens, they would need physical exercise daily. He felt glad that he could motivate people at that age too for fitness.