Singh, who has become the first Indian hockey player to be the flag bearer at the Olympics after former Indian hockey captain Pargat Singh (1996 Atlanta Olympics), incidentally belongs to the same village as Pargat — Mithapur in Jalandhar. Earlier, Lal Singh Bokhari (1932 Los Angeles Olympics), Major Dhyan Chand (1936 Munich Olympics), Balbir Singh Senior (1952 Helsinki Olympics and 1956 Melbourne Olympics), Zafar Iqbal (1984 Olympics) and Pargat Singh (1996 Olympics) had the honour. Mithapur has a history of producing international hockey players with Swarup Singh, a member of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics gold medal winning Indian hockey team, Kulwant Singh, member of the bronze medal winning Indian hockey team in 1972 Olympics, apart from Pargat Singh, captain and member of the Indian Hockey team in 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Alongwith Manpreet Singh, another Mithapur lad Mandeep Singh is also member of the Indian hockey team for the Tokyo Olympics. While Pargat Singh played in three Olympics (1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics), Tokyo Olympics will be Manpreet’s third Olympics after he played in 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics.

Source: Indian Express July 06, 2021 02:29 UTC