In a shocking story, a five-time national champion and a Bronze medalist in the 1994 Asian Boxing Championship, Lakha Singh is currently driving a taxi in order to make ends meet. Its appalling to see a man of his caliber, who should have been training future generation of boxers, driving a taxi for survival. While he allegedly blames the country for abandoning him, the govt. labeled him as a deserter.
During the mid-1990s, Lakha Singh was India’s biggest bet in international boxing tournaments to bring medals to the country. He carried India’s hopes in boxing in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as well, but he couldn’t repeat the success he had at national and the Asian level. Two years after the 96 Olympics, his life took a turn for the worse.
Singh was scheduled to take part in the World Military Boxing Championship in 1998, however, he slipped out of the Texas airport and just vanished. Amidst the widespread speculations that he absconded to pursue a career in professional boxing in the US, Singh was declared an absconder by the Army, and cut him off.
Singh on the other hand says that he was kidnapped, and held captive for a month in the US. ‘With no longer valid visa and money in my pocket, I worked at gas stations, restaurants, construction sites etc. and it took me eight years to save the money required to buy a ticket back to India. I was happy to return, but I was shocked to learn that I had been declared a deserter by the Army,” Singh said.
Whatever the true story is, its sad to see an Olympian and a five-time national champion plying a taxi to survive.
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