Dalip Singh (athlete)
Dalip Singh Grewal (born April 27, 1899, date of death unknown) was an Indian track and field athlete who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics and in the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Biography
He was born in Dolon Kalan, Punjab as Sikh and was the father of Balkrishan Singh. In 1924 he was eliminated in the qualification of the long jump competition and finished 14th overall. Four years later he finished 36th in the long jump event at the 1928 Olympics.
To the late Brigadier Dalip Singh Grewal goes the credit of being the first Sikh to represent India in the Olympics. The 1924 Olympic Games were held in Paris in which India sent a contingent of seven athletes. In this seven-man squad, two Sikhs, Dalip and Palam made their debut.
The Sikh had missed the bus only four years ago when six Indian athletes had participated in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. Dalip Singh could not have made to the Paris Olympics Games but for the patronage and help coming in from the late Maharajadhiraj Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. It may be recalled that Dalip Singh besides being a fine athlete was a good hockey player also. When the trails were to be held at Lahore (now in Pakistan) for the Paris Olympics, Dalip Singh was scheduled to play for Patiala Tigers, a hockey team. It was here that the Maharaja of Patiala came to recognise his worth and helped him take a well-deserved place in the seven -man athletic team. It is true that the team then did not bring home any laurels, but it is on record that two among the Indian athletic performed really well, and one of them was Dalip Singh. In the long jump event, he narrowly missed a mark which could have earned him a place among the first six.
