Legendary hockey player Balbir Singh Senior died in a private hospital on Monday, his family said. He was 96 and was in a critical condition for nearly a fortnight.
"Nanaji passed away this morning," his grandson Kabir said in a statement.
Balbir was undergoing treatment at Fortis Mohali and was in a "semi-comatose condition". He was hospitalised on May 8 with high fever and breathing trouble. But, his COVID-19 test had come negative.
In January last year, he was discharged from PGI after spending more than 100 days in the hospital, where he underwent treatment for bronchial pneumonia.
Balbir was part of the Indian teams that won gold at the 1948 London Olympics, Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956.
His record for most individual goals scored in an Olympic men's hockey final remains unbeaten. Balbir had set this record when he scored five goals in India's 6-1 win over Netherlands in the gold medal match of the 1952 Games.
Under his Captaincy, India scored 38 goals and conceded none on its way to the Gold medal in 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Beating England 4-0 in their own backyard during the Final of the 1948 Olympic Games as an independent nation was Balbir Sr's 'greatest moment’.
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He was the head coach of the Indian team for the 1975 men's World Cup, which India won and the 1971 men's World Cup, where India earned a bronze medal.
He was also a member of the Indian hockey team that won the silver medal at the 1958 Asian Games.
Balbir Singh Sr is also the only Asian male and only Indian among 16 athletes to be chosen as "Iconic Olympians" by the International Olympic Committee across the modern Olympics' history. He was one of the 16 iconic Olympians chosen[19] whose example "tells of human strength and endeavour, of passion, determination, hard work and achievement and demonstrates the values of the Olympic Movement."
For Balbir Singh Sr's stellar contribution to the game, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour in 1957 and was conferred with the Major Dhyan Chand Life Time Achievement Award by Hockey India in 2014.