Quotes from Milkha Singh

You have to be disciplined if you want to be world class.

I knew what my fatal error was: After running perilously fast in lane five, I slowed down at 250 meters. I could not cover the lost ground after that - and that cost me the race. After the death of my parents, that is my worst memory. I kept crying for days.

Everybody knows Milkha deserves more than a Padma Shri, but it is for others, including the federation, to nominate me to the government for higher awards.

I want people to be passionate about their fitness. Everyone must take ten minutes of physical exercise daily at home or outside.

I do not blame the government for not providing infrastructure to athletes. They have given everything for training of athletes.

The government does a lot, ranging from providing the infrastructure to financial support for training etc. In our time, we didn't get these facilities. Current athletes are getting all these. Yet, another Milkha Singh has not been produced in the country in nearly 60 years after me.

I would push myself so much that in the end I would collapse and I would have to be admitted to hospital, I would pray to God to save me, promise that I would be more careful in future. And then I would do it all over again.

The people of this country remember me. I may have started dyeing my beard, but I am recognized at airports, railway stations - anywhere. School textbooks have chapters on me, and somehow the sobriquet 'The Flying Sikh' has endured in people's memory.

I am very happy that the doors have opened for sportspersons. But I think the first Bharat Ratna should have been given to Dhyan Chand because of what he has achieved.

Running had become such an obsession that even when asleep, I would run races in my dreams.

We had nothing in our times. The athletes and sportsmen in those days didn't earn much money. We worked for the applause, people's appreciation inspired and motivated us, we ran for the country.

Athletes like me, PT Usha, Anju Bobby Gerorge have reached finals in Olympics, and it's not easy to reach the finals. If Indians were genetically inferior then we wouldn't have reached even finals.

I did not know about awards. I just wanted to break the world record and the Olympic record.

In my teens, I had no idea about running as a sports event. For me, an orphan, it was not only about learning how to survive the brutal world, but also about carving an identity.

I start my day with two eggs and two slices of toast along with juice and take 1-2 chapatis with dal and curd rice at lunch.

We should have coaches who can produce results and even if we need to hire them on contracts, we should do that.

It was the quest for survival that took me to the world of sports.

When 'Bhaag Mikha Bhaag' was released, no matter where I went - Australia, England or Canada, people around the world used to say 'Farhan is Milkha Singh's ditto copy.'

I have been telling people that doing physical exercise and remaining healthy is very important during this COVID times. I am 91 but I have been doing exercise regularly.

I came from the bottom, from nothing. To a man who has nothing in his life, imagine what it's like to be hoisted on someone's shoulders.

I have given permission that my medals be transferred from the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi to the sports museum in Patiala.

In my determination to avoid failure, I set myself a goal to work towards, that is, to transform myself into a running machine.

During Partition, my parents, my brother and sisters were killed before my eyes.

Whenever I returned after winning a race, my friends in the Army would lift me on their shoulders and break into Bhangra, irrespective of whether they knew the dance or not.