Another shocking news for Indian sports: Olympic champion & hockey coach MK Kaushik succumbs to COVID

Saturday turned out to be a sad day for the Indian sports, as the country lost two of its hockey Olympic gold medalists Raivinder Pal Singh, 65, and MK Kaushik, 66.   

After Moscow Olympics gold medalist Pal Singh died on Saturday morning in Lucknow after battling COVID-19 for nearly two weeks, India lost another former hockey Olympic champion and Dronacharya awardee coach Kaushik on Saturday evening. He also succumbed to COVID

Both Pal Singh and Kaushik were part of the same team that won the country’s last Olympic medal in hockey in the 1980 Moscow Games.

He played in two World Cups and 1982 Asia Cup in Karachi was his last International outing as a player.

Kaushik remained the chief national coach of both Indian men and women’s team. Under his coaching Indian men’s team won gold in the 1998 Asian Games. The continental games gold in the men’s hockey came after a gap of 32 years. He was also the coach of the women’s team that won bronze in the 2006 Doha Asian Games. He was awarded Arjuna award in1998 and got the Dronacharya award in 2002.

He retired as Deputy Director from Haryana Sports Department. He was also in charge of the Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy and later at the National Hockey Academy in New Delhi as part of Khelo India before retiring last month.

He was born in Delhi and played maximum of his domestic hockey for Bombay.