Punjab’s Mithapur is the country’s only village to have two Olympic flag bearers

By Saurabh Duggal

After Indian hockey captain Manpreet Singh along with Olympic medalist boxer Mary Kom was named flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Monday, Mithapur village in Jalandhar – the native place of Manpreet – has got the distinction of being the country’s only village to have two Olympic flag bearers.

Before Manpreet, former Indian Olympic captain Pargat Singh was the first from the village to lead the Olympic contingent. Pargat was the flag bearer in the1996 Atlanta Olympics as well as captain of the men’s hockey squad.

With Manpreet and Mandeep Singh making a cut in the Tokyo-bound squad, the village has five hockey Olympians to its credit. Pargat (1992, 96), Sarup Singh (1952) and Kulwant Singh (1972) from the village played in the Olympics.

There was a time when Sansarpur village in Jalandhar made its dominance felt in Indian hockey, earning global fame for producing over a dozen Olympic medallists from a tiny settlement. The nearby villages of Sansarpur also benefited from its hockey legacy.

The game, inherited from the British Army in the pre-independence era, spread to adjoining areas and Mithapur village was one of the beneficiaries.

In the 1990s, Mithapur came into focus with the emergence of Pargat Singh, who went on to lead India in two successive Olympics. The hockey fame also helped Pargat become the first Olympian from Punjab to win a state assembly election in 2012. He won the successive election from Jalandhar cantt seat in 212 and 217 state assembly elections.   

Later the lure of the foreign land, which motivated the local youth to migrate, and drugs too played a role in the slow and steady decline of hockey culture in the area.

But in mid-2005, with Pargat’s initiative, the village once again emerged as a hockey hub.

Pargat with help of some like minded people from the village started a hockey centre, Youth Sports Club Mithapur. “Initially, we started with 40 kids and formed two groups, under-12 and under-14. Current Indian captain Manpreet is from the first batch,” said Pargat, who played in three Olympics (1988, 92, 96).