Athletes
Dhyan Chand
Also Known As The Wizard; The Magician of Hockey
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Dhyan Chand is widely considered the greatest field hockey player in history, winning three consecutive Olympic gold medals with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936 and scoring by his own count more than 1,000 career goals. Dutch officials at the 1928 Games reportedly broke his hockey stick to check for a hidden magnet, unable to otherwise explain his ball control. The BBC has described him as hockey's equivalent of Muhammad Ali. India celebrates his birthday, 29 August, as National Sports Day, and the country's highest sporting honor is named after him. He received the Padma Bhushan in 1956 and died in 1979 of liver cancer.
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Career HighlightAfter the 1936 Berlin Olympics, declined an offer of German citizenship and a colonel commission from Adolf Hitler, choosing to remain in the Indian Army instead. 1 Career HighlightScored 570 goals in 185 international matches between 1926 and 1949, according to his own autobiography, with over 1,000 goals across his full domestic and international career. 1 Career HighlightWon three Olympic gold medals with India, at the 1928 Amsterdam, 1932 Los Angeles and 1936 Berlin Games, finishing as top scorer at the 1928 tournament with 14 goals. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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