After the war for Indian independence took his parents life, Milkha Singh returned to India and in 1953 joined the Indian Army. On joining the army, Milkha Singh paid special attention to athletics and started to train himself for 400 meter race.

Determined to be the best and realizing his talent as a sprinter, the jawan took to training five hours every day. Motivated by his coach Havildar Gurdev Singh, he left it to the elements to hone his craft -- running on the hills, the sands of the Yamuna river, and against the speed of a metre gauge train.

"The flying Sikh", represented India at Rome, during the 1960 Summer Olympics. However games that year proved to leave a terrible mark of dissatisfaction in Milkha's career as he lost the Bronze medal by a mere 0.1 seconds.

In the first heat in the Rome Olympics in 1960 Milkha Singh clocked 47.6 seconds to finish sec