Surinder Singh Sodhi is a former

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He is famous for playing a major role in getting India the gold medal in 1980 Olympic games after a gap of 16 years. He played in the center forward position. In the final against Spain, Surinder Singh Sodhi gave India a rousing start as it established a comfortable three-goal lead early in the second half. Surinder Singh Sodhi scoring 2 of those. But Spain gamely bounced back into the game with 2 unanswered goals. With Spain raiding the Indian defence, and with only 6 minutes left,

Mohammed Shahid Mohammed Shahid (14 April 1960 – 20 July 2016) was an Indian field hockey player. He is considered one of India's best to have played the game and was known for his dribbling skills. He was a member of the Indian team that won the gold medal ...

scored a goal. However, with only 4 minutes remaining, Spain scored yet again with their skipper

Juan Amat Juan Amat Fontanals (10 July 1946 – 12 May 2022) was a Spanish field hockey player. He won the silver medal with the Men's National Team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. There he was topscorer of the tournament with sixteen goals, incl ...

completing his hattrick. The atmosphere in the last few minutes was electric, and India finally won the thriller 4-3, and thus regained the elusive gold after a long time. In previous games Surinder Singh Sodhi scored 5 goals against Tanzania and 4 goals against Cuba.List of Goals scored by Sikh at Olympic Hockey
/ref> The 15 goals scored by him in the 1980 Moscow Olympics is the second highest goals at the games and highest tally by an Indian in an Olympic hockey competition. It equalised the earlier record of 15 goals set by the great

Udham Singh Udham Singh (born Sher Singh; 26 December 1899 — 31 July 1940) was an Indian revolutionary belonging to Ghadar Party and HSRA, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 Mar ...

in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

References

External links

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Pakistan honoured four former Indian Olympians including Surinder Singh Sodhi
20 September 2004. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

''. Year of birth missing (living people) Olympic field hockey players of India Olympic gold medalists for India Field hockey players at the 1980 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Arjuna Award Living people Sportspeople from Firozpur Field hockey players from Punjab, India Olympic medalists in field hockey Indian male field hockey players Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 1978 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for India Medalists at the 1978 Asian Games {{India-fieldhockey-bio-stub