Padma Shri Award
Balbir Singh Sr.
Introduced in 1954 for outstanding civilians
Balbir Singh Dosanjh, popularly known as Balbir Singh Sr. represented India in three Olympic Games getting the Gold Medal on each occasion. In the year 1957, he became the first recipient of the Padma Shri award in Sports category.
He made his Olympics debut at London in 1948 against Argentina where India won the match 9-1. He scored six goals including a hat-trick. In the final against Britain, India won 4-0 with Balbir scoring twice.
At the Helsinki Olympics 1952, he was the Vice-Captain and in the semi-final against Britain he scored all the three goals. In the final India beat Holland 6-1 with Balbir scoring five including a hat-trick He was made the Captain for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.
He was the Manager of the Indian team that won the World Cup in 1975 in Kuala Lumpur.
| Year | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Balbir Singh Sr. | – |
| 1958 | K.D. Singh ‘Babu’ | – |
| 1964 | Charanjit Singh | – |
| 1966 | Krishan Lal | – |
| 1967 | Prithipal Singh | – |
| 1967 | Shankar Laxman | – |
| 1971 | Leslie Cladius | – |
| 1981 | Vasudevan Baskaran | – |
| 1981 | Mohd. Shahid | – |
| 1982 | – | Eliza Nelson |
| 1990 | Jhaman Lal Sharma | – |
| 1991 | – | Selma D’Silva |
| 1992 | Ajit Pal Singh | – |
| 1995 | – | – |
| 1998 | Pargat Singh | – |
| 2001 | Dhanraj Pillay | – |
| 2003 | Mukesh Kumar | – |
| 2004 | Dilip Tirkey | – |
| 2009 | Balbir Singh Kullar | – |
| 2010 | Ignace Tirkey | – |
| 2012 | Zafar Iqbal | – |
| 2015 | Sardar Singh | Saba Anjum |
| 2017 | P.R. Sreejesh | - |
| 2020 | MP Ganesh | Rani |
| 2022 | Vandana Katariya |