When it comes to ranking the five greatest male Commonwealth athletes from India it is harder than it looks. Medals matter, of course, but so does timing, the weight of expectation, and how much each win changed the way the country thought about sport.
Some of these men ended long waits. Others made winning look normal. A few simply refused to be forgotten.
Ranking India’s Five greatest male Commonwealth athletes
These five didn’t just collect medals. They shifted what Indian sport believed was possible. You could argue for different names, and plenty of people would but these athletes inspired and still continue to inspire plenty of future superstars. Here are the greatest Indian male Commonwealth athletes.
1. Milkha Singh
A young man from a small village in Punjab, still carrying the scars of Partition, stepped onto the track for the 440 yards final at Cardiff in 1958. Almost nobody outside India expected him to win. He did and in doing so became the first Indian to take an individual athletics gold at the Commonwealth Games. That single race did more than put India on the medal table. It inspired a generation of runners that the rest of the world was not out of reach. Milkha never won another Commonwealth gold, but he didn’t need to. Everything that came after in Indian athletics still starts with him.
2. Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Bindra was one of the most consistent athletes who just kept winning. Across four Commonwealth Games he won seven medals, pairs golds, individual silvers and bronzes, and finally an individual gold in Glasgow. Shooting had always produced the odd good result for India. Abhinav Bindra turned it into something reliable. When he stepped onto the range he delivered excellence every single time.
3. Sushil Kumar
Three Commonwealth golds in a row is rare in any sport. Sushil managed it in 2010, 2014 and 2018, changing weight categories along the way and still walking out as champion. By the time he finished, he had become the face of Indian wrestling. He made difficult wins look almost easy and is one of the pioneers of Indian wrestling.
4. Neeraj Chopra
For decades the conversation around Indian athletics golds kept circling back to Milkha. In Gold Coast 2018 a 20-year-old from Haryana threw 86.47 metres and took the javelin title. It wasn’t the absolute first individual athletics gold since 1958, but it felt like the one that finally closed the long gap. That was the start of a supreme journey and he still continues to bring glory to India.
5. Vijender Singh
Despite competing really well, Vijender never managed to win a Commonwealth gold. He won a silver in Melbourne, bronze in Delhi, another silver in Glasgow but he still changed Indian boxing. Before him the sport barely registered with most people. After his results and the Olympic bronze that followed, he inspired a generation of young boxers in India.