Exclusive Interview: Indian Hockey Vice-Captain Hardik Singh Talks Paris Olympics, Pressure, and Purpose

As vice-captain and one of the mainstays of the Indian men’s hockey team over the last two Olympic cycles, Hardik Singh might appear most at ease on hockey fields across the world. But it’s in one corner of Jalandhar where he truly feels at home.

“I only get to spend a few months every year here. But if there’s one place that I long to visit, it’s right here,” he said when he met Sportstar just before the European leg of the Pro League.

With Olympic rings mounted in metal on its façade, it’s hard to miss the 26-year-old’s newly constructed two-storey home just outside the village of Khusropur. But this wasn’t always the case.

“I’ve grown up in this exact place. This is my childhood home, but after the 2020 Olympics, I was thinking of renovating a couple of rooms. But after I got a bit of money, I decided to demolish and rebuild the same thing. A lot of people suggested that I build a home in Chandigarh, but I never had any other thought than to make my home right here. I don’t think I get the same kind of peace anywhere else,” he says.

Hardik is a self-confessed hockey nerd. When he plays fetch on the lawn with his German Shepherd, Marshal, it’s often with a hockey ball that he strikes using a hockey stick. Inside his home, behind glass, are framed kits of Harmanpreet Singh and Manpreet Singh — two of India’s top players — with plans to add more.

His two Olympic bronze medals from the Tokyo and Paris Games aren’t kept under lock and key, though.

“When I’m around, people always want to see them. So I bring them out and let people hold them. The medal from Paris has got a little dirty, but I don’t mind. The point of these medals is for people to see them,” he says.

While two Olympic bronze medals might seem like a major achievement across much of India, Hardik insists that’s not quite the case in his part of Punjab. His house is a short walk from Khusropur, the ancestral village of his paternal family.

“Khusropur has had a huge part to play in the history of hockey in India. There are so many players from here who have played for India. If you include mine, people from my village have won a total of seven Olympic medals,” he says.

Family tradition

Hardik’s family also has a rich history with the sport. His grandfather coached the Navy team, where his uncle Jugraj and aunt Rajbir both represented India. His father, too, made it to the national camp before giving up his career to support the family.

Perhaps the most celebrated of his relatives is his father’s uncle, Gurmail Singh, who won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

“Even now, when we sit together, my uncle will keep saying how his generation of players were the greatest ever. And my dad says no: hockey has changed so much. There are things like zonal structure which weren’t always there. But at the end of the day, my chacha has the Olympic gold! I can’t show off just yet. I have a bronze, but a gold is something different. I’d grown up hearing stories of my chacha’s Olympic gold and I remember the first time I saw it in his showcase. I remember going, ‘Wow! So that’s what an Olympic medal looks like.’ I thought, ‘That’s what it must be to complete hockey,’” he says.

Given his background, it was almost inevitable that Hardik would take up hockey too.

“I think hockey chose me. I was from a hockey family. We had a field too in the village where my grandfather coached. Even when I was a kid there were at least 100 kids who were training there. One of my earliest memories is when Guru Nanak Dev University was hosting a match between India and Pakistan in Amritsar, and at half-time, my uncle took me to the centre of the field and I hit a few balls,” he says.

Still, it was his grandfather who played the biggest role in nurturing his love for the sport.

“Every evening at 4 p.m., he would take me on the back of his scooter to the practice ground and I’d play until 7 p.m. Just to encourage me, he’d give me a little bit of pocket money every day. It was just 10 rupees. I’d buy a packet of Lay’s chips or a bottle of Coke. I think I was bribed into liking hockey, but I did enjoy it,” Hardik says.

It wasn’t just daily practice — his grandfather also took him to trials and tournaments in the village.

“Whenever there was a tournament, he’d seat me on the back of his Activa and off we’d go. As a kid, I’ve seen so many international players. Even at that age, I’d be really fascinated,” he says.

Even after moving to academies in Jalandhar and later Mohali, Hardik would frequently return to Khusropur and even the neighbouring village of Sansarpur for tournaments.

“I remember once competing at a competition in Sansarpur and I saw Harmanpreet for the first time. He was a junior India player then. I would just stare at him thinking this is what an international player looks like,” he says.

Competitive streak

Though his own village boasted significant hockey pedigree, Hardik says he often looked beyond it for inspiration.

“There were many people from my village who had competed in the Olympics, but there had been a long gap since the last Olympian and Olympic medal. I think there is another kind of motivation I got from seeing players closer to my own age compete at that level,” he says.

“A player like Harmanpreet was already in the Indian junior team at the time that I was in the hockey academy. When he would come back from tours, he’d sometimes play along with us academy players. Seeing him play, I’d think, this is how I have to play as well. Every day was a battle for me just to show what I was capable of. If I was marking someone in training, I’d push myself, saying I had to steal the ball from him. I had to catch him if I wanted to be better than him,” he says.

Hardik says this kind of competitiveness was essential. “That envy is what it takes to probably get to the team. I wanted really badly to share the field and dressing room with those senior players. And to do that, I had to be better than them,” he says.

He pushed himself to the limit. “My first hostel in Jalandhar was just a 20-minute drive from my home. Despite that, I didn’t come home on weekends. I would wake up at 4 a.m., just so that I could do some extra training before the actual day started. If my evening training began at 4.30, I’d come in at 3.30 and leave an hour later just so I could get an extra edge,” he says.

This came naturally to him.

“Some people wonder if I was pushed into hockey because I have so many generations who are hockey players, but I have no regret over the path my life took. Most people spend a lot of time searching for what their life’s goal is. I think I am very thankful that I knew from the beginning of my life that I wanted to be a hockey player. It’s not that it wasn’t my grandfather’s dream. He always hoped that I would make it to the Indian team some day, but the choice was mine. No one was forcing me to do this. And to make it to the Indian team, I had to outwork everyone,” he says.

Unlike some of his teammates, Hardik didn’t have a rapid rise through the ranks.

“Although I made it to the Indian junior team, I didn’t make that kind of immediate jump into the seniors that players like Harmanpreet did. He was already in the Indian Olympic team (in 2016) while still a junior. I had to wait for my opportunity. There was a time when I was seriously thinking I should try to play club hockey in the Netherlands in order to get myself ready for the senior level,” he says.

His senior international debut eventually came at the 2018 Asian Champions Trophy. That tournament remains special for another reason too.

“I remember just after our training session, a message went out to the team WhatsApp group asking the players who had just been announced as part of the Indian squad to choose their jersey numbers. There were a few numbers that had already been chosen. Harmanpreet has 13, Manpreet has 7, and Mandeep had 11. I always wanted jersey number 8. I was hoping no one had claimed it and luckily I was able to get it,” he says.

Special jersey

Jersey number 8 was special for Hardik because it had previously been worn by former Indian skipper Sardar Singh.

“I think the first hockey player I was really a fan of was Sardar bhai. Back when I was a kid, I’d send messages to his Facebook account and hope he responded to me. Then, in 2014, when I got the chance to be a ball boy in the Hockey India League, I got to see him in real life when he was playing for Delhi Waveriders. He was this muscular guy, walking while holding his hockey stick in one hand and using a phone with the other. There were two people who were following him everywhere. When he was at the airport, people would clear out a way for him. He would hang out with all the actors and celebrities. And then he had that name — Sardar (which means leader). What could I say but that he had an aura? I was like, wow!” he says.

It wasn’t just a superficial influence. Hardik says he tried to emulate every aspect of Sardar’s attitude.

“When I got the chance to see him and later play with him for the same team in 2016, I learnt a lot. I understood how important the work one did off the field was. I saw how careful he was with his diet, sleeping pattern and hydration. He looked at every small detail that made him a better player. Sardar bhai retired just as I was getting into the Indian team, so when I got the chance to wear his jersey, of course, I took it. I think the No. 8 jersey has a lot of importance in the Indian team because Sardar has set a very good example. I hope I’m living up to that example. So, I want this number to inspire the next set of youngsters — because that was the same number that inspired me,” says Hardik.

While Hardik did get to be a part of the Indian team with the jersey he wanted, in the same central position as Sardar, it took a while for him to truly own his idol’s number.

“It wasn’t that I wasn’t working hard. It was just that the results were not coming right away. It was only after the Tokyo Olympics that I actually started earning a name, but it’s all the work that I put in starting in 2018 when I made my debut, and 2021 when I actually got the chance to put everything together. Everyone only sees that in 2021, but it’s the invisible hard work that actually made it possible,” he says.

Having done the hard work himself, Hardik has a clear idea of what it takes to be part of the Indian team.

“There are two ways you can make your place in the Indian team,” says Hardik. “You can either be really versatile, like someone like Sumit. He can play every side — on the right, in the attack, or in midfield. You can put him in any position and he will fit right in. The other way you can be part of the team is if you are irreplaceable in any one position. Amit (Rohidas) is the best first rusher we have when we are defending penalty corners, so he always has a place. We know Harmanpreet is the best drag-flicker, so we will always need him. With Harman, I have to inject the ball. So that’s one of the roles that I try to be strong in,” he says.

Unique role

Injecting the ball to the drag-flicker isn’t the most glamorous role, but Hardik says he enjoys it.

“I actually wanted to be a drag-flicker like my uncle (Jugraj Singh), but I found out very quickly that I’m not good at that. As a junior, I started injecting the ball and, since Sardar Singh used to inject the ball also, it was even more of a skill I wanted to be good at. I really started focusing on it in my junior year and once I got into the senior team, I formed a really good partnership with Harmanpreet,” he says.

That pairing has combined to score many goals for India, but Hardik admits he was the weak link early on.

“When I think about the Tokyo Olympics, I feel really bad because I sent so many really bumpy balls to Harman in the penalty corners. Despite that, he really managed to convert so many of them. I’ll always be grateful for that,” he says.

Winning bronze at Tokyo might have been the professional turning point of the then 22-year-old’s career, but he tries to view it objectively.

“I played in the Olympics when I was really young, but in our team there was Shamsher (Singh), who had just four caps when he came into the Olympic team, and there was Sreejesh, who had over 300 caps before he got his medal. Everyone’s journey is different, but the only thing that matters is whether you enjoy every bit of preparing for the actual game,” he says.

Indeed, after the initial excitement of winning the medal faded, Hardik says he realised he was still unsatisfied.

“We didn’t have any medal for 41 years, so at first I was just really happy when we beat Germany and got the bronze. But then I saw the final between Australia and Belgium. And then I saw just how the Belgian team celebrated when they won. It was as if they had accomplished this incredible dream. That’s when I realised that I may have won the bronze, but I wanted the kind of happiness that the Belgian team had. A part of us probably felt satisfied with what we had accomplished. But when I saw the final, I saw just how the Belgian players were hugging each other. They had worked so hard for so many years. That’s when I realised gold is something else. That’s where I want to go. That’s where I want the team to go,” he says.

It was in chasing this goal that Hardik says he pushed himself too hard. “After the Olympics, I was made vice-captain of the team and I started taking that responsibility in an unhealthy way. I was really being hard on myself. After training sessions, I wouldn’t talk to anyone and just go quietly to my room. I was getting really tired of playing hockey at that point. I was always angry with myself, thinking, ‘Is this how an Olympic medallist plays?’” he says.

It was around then that Paddy Upton, who had been appointed as a mental conditioning coach with the Indian team, helped him out. “Paddy Upton changed my mindset and taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes, even if you are an elite athlete. He gave me the example of Virat Kohli, who was also hard on himself and doing some of the other things I was doing to myself. Paddy told me that my personality is also similar to that of Virat. At that time, I didn’t really think much of cricket. It wasn’t jealousy, but I always felt they were rewarded for not doing half the work we hockey players did. But I slowly learnt to appreciate what Virat was doing. He is someone who doesn’t need appreciation or care what others think. He knows how good he is. I thought, Baat sahi keh raha hai. (He’s saying the right thing.) I know my capability. I don’t need anyone’s appreciation. I know I am a game changer. If I can’t perform in one match, it’s fine. I’ll perform in the other match,” he says.

If Upton changed his mindset, it was coach Craig Fulton who, Hardik says, changed the way he thought about the game.

“I don’t think I changed a lot technically, but tactically I’m a very different player compared to a few years back. I used to have a very one-dimensional, locked game. But coach Fulton opened my style. He got me to start thinking not just about the play I had to make but also about different plans. He’s also someone who knows what to say at the right time. At the Paris Olympics, I had two bakwas (terrible) matches. I think it was because I was trying too hard. He told me, ‘Don’t look for the fire. It’s already inside you,’” he says.

What followed was the match against Australia, where India picked up its first Olympic win in over 52 years against that formidable opponent. For Hardik, though, that victory wasn’t the shock others made it out to be.

“We just knew ki Australia ko thokna hai (we had to smash Australia). We had played a series against them and lost every one of five games. And at the end of the tour, we had a team meeting and the coach asked if we thought we could beat Australia. And everyone said yes! Even after that 5–0 defeat, everyone believed in this Indian team,” he says.

Unsatisfied with bronze

But while India would go on to win its second consecutive Olympic bronze, Hardik says that familiar feeling of dissatisfaction still lingered.

“It’s strange because I had a much better tournament in Paris than in Tokyo, but I actually felt worse at the end of it. In 2021, I knew Belgium were better than us. But this time I knew we were at the same level, if not better, than everyone. We were going toe to toe with Germany. We knew that if we went for a shootout, we could have won — and our record with the Netherlands wasn’t bad,” he says.

Once again, though, he’s found ways to live with the result.

“We lost in the semis in both the Olympics that we have played. Very often I’ll think how I came really close on both occasions to making it to the Olympic final and maybe even winning, but wasn’t able to make it count. But then I also think there is a reason. Germany lost to us in 2021 and then they won the World Cup the next year and got silver in the next Olympics. So maybe something like that might happen to us,” he says.

For now, Hardik has memorialised the incompleteness of his twin Olympic experience with a tattoo on his arm. Around his bicep are the four Olympic rings, with the topmost ones only partially inked.

“The Olympics are unfinished for me. I am thankful for whatever we achieved, but at the same time there’s something left to be achieved. It’s only when I win that Olympic gold that I’ll fill that gap,” he says.

There’s a long way to go before the Los Angeles Games in 2028. There are the Asian Games and the World Championships next year. There’s also the 2025–26 Pro League, which started strongly but hasn’t gone the way India would have hoped, with multiple defeats in Europe over the past few weeks.

While recent results haven’t been encouraging, Hardik speaks of seeing them in perspective.

“I think one of the challenges of the Pro League is figuring out which combination is best for the Indian team. It’s different between us and teams in Europe simply because of the nature of our squads. In India, the squad usually starts out with 33 people. That means eventually you have to give chances to all of them. In Europe, the squads are usually smaller. A lot of the reason for that is simply that we are a much bigger country,” he says.

Special team

Bigger doesn’t always mean better and, indeed, Hardik says there are often challenges in getting the Indian squad to work as one.

“Indian hockey is an all-India sport. Most of India’s wrestlers are from Haryana, most badminton players are from Telangana. Hockey is a game where North, East, West, South, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, North East, UP, Punjab — all produce players. Sometimes it’s difficult to get all these players to gel together. Some are shy, and others from the northern states are very talkative. In some states, the ultimate goal is simply to make the Indian team, while others who have more representation are thinking of the Olympic medal. So, we have to find a balance when we are in the team. I think people really underestimate how big India is and how hard it is to make a team,” he says.

However, it’s that knowledge of how special being part of an Indian team is — and all it represents — that keeps Hardik motivated.

“I didn’t choose hockey because I wanted fame or money. I chose it because I enjoyed it. It helped that I was from a hockey family and that I had that in my mind from a very young age. Even when there was the lockdown [due to Covid-19], there would be talk that other sports have so much money, but when I saw how Indians celebrated India’s win at the Olympics, that boosted my passion even more. Even when I was thinking that I wish I had won a gold, I know the value of this bronze. After we won in Tokyo, I had a friend of mine who said one senior relative of his wanted to speak to me. When uncle came on the call, he told me, ‘ Beta, humari ek generation chali gayi, humne medal nahi dekha. (We had gone one generation without seeing an Olympic medal.) Thanks to you, I have seen India stand on the Olympic podium once before I passed.’ That’s when it really hit home that people love this medal and value it so much. That a person was crying on the phone while speaking to me,” he says.

But while he might have already inspired many, Hardik says his task won’t be completed until he actually wins an Olympic gold for India.

“No matter what we achieved, we haven’t achieved what those teams from the 1975 World Championships or the 1980 Olympics have done. I feel proud that I’ve inspired people, but I don’t think we have done enough. We have won two medals, but still we didn’t win the Olympic gold and we were not world champions. That’s my ambition. I want to take India to a place where it once was. And just like how others inspired me, if I can inspire five or six other players, that would be special,” he says.