GS Paper - II
The National Sports Day is celebrated on 29 August 2024 in the memory of Dhyan Chand, the first superstar of Indian hockey, and arguably India’s first sporting superstar.
Wizard of the game
- Quite simply, Dhyan Chand, born in Allahabad in 1905, was the first superstar of hockey, and considered a wizard of the game.
- He was the chief protagonist as India won three consecutive Olympic hockey gold medals — Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932, and Berlin 1936. He is said to have wowed the watching public with his sublime skills, intricate dribbling and gluttonous appetite for scoring.
- During those tournaments, there was no team that could compete with India — and most of India’s matches were won with huge victory margins.
- India beat hosts the Netherlands 3-0 in the 1928 final, the United States were thrashed by a scarcely-believable margin of 24-1 in the 1932 gold medal match, while Germany went down 8-1 in the 1936 decider.
- In all, Dhyan Chand played 12 Olympic matches, and scored an unbelievable 33 goals — just shy of scoring a hattrick each game!
A shining light in Indian sports
- Dhyan Chand played during India’s pre-independence years, a time when the local population was subjugated and made to feel inferior by the ruling British.
- This is what gave his achievements on the field even more importance for Indians. Seeing an Indian dominating Europeans in a sport invented by them evoked a lot of pride.
- Moreover, for a long time, hockey was the only sport in which India consistently excelled at the international and Olympic stage.
- In fact, starting from Amsterdam 1928, India won seven of the eight hockey gold medals at the Games.
- Apart from K D Jadhav’s wrestling bronze at Helsinki 1952, India had to wait until Atlanta 1996 and tennis player Leander Paes for an Olympic medal in a sport other than hockey.
- There were other great contemporary players like K D Singh ‘Babu’, Roop Singh, and Balbir Singh, but Dhyan Chand’s name was always taken first.
Recognition of his achievements
- Apart from 29 August 2024 being celebrated as the National Sports Day, numerous awards and other honours are named after Dhyan Chand.
- In 2021, the Narendra Modi government renamed the erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour, after Dhyan Chand.
- An award for lifetime achievement in sport was already named after him.
- New Delhi’s National Stadium was renamed Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in 2002.
