Akshdeep Singh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Akshdeep Singh

• Akshdeep Singh belongs to a Sikh farmer family in Punjab.

• He wanted to become an army officer in his childhood.

• He trained for 800m races in his village from coach Jaspreet Singh at the Baba Kehar Singh Stadium in Barnala before training under Gurudev Singh.

• It was on Jaspreet Singh’s recommendation that Akshdeep Singh began training under Gurudev Singh. Akshdeep initially faced difficulty due to a change in his training method.

• He bought his first race walking shoes at Rs 4500. His shoes would tear after two to three months of use, so his coaches helped him out by purchasing a new pair of shoes for him.

• After breaking the junior national record, he applied for a passport. However, an injury prevented him from obtaining the necessary visa stamp.

• During his training under coach Tatiana Sibileva, she made him focus on hip and knee exercises to maintain a straight posture on the track while race walking. She trained him for long steps and fast heel kicks to have heel balance.

• He perfected his technique by watching videos of race-walking champions Perseus Karlström of Sweden and Chen Ding and Wang Zhen of China.

• He started as a middle-distance runner before beginning his career as a racewalker in 2016.

• In 2018, Akshdeep Singh ranked sixth in the world in the IAAF U20 World ranking.

  

• In 2019, he had a knee injury due to which he could not participate in the World University Games in Italy.

• In 2020, he started reading Gurbani books, history books, and biographies.

• He likes listening to Sidhu Moose Wala‘s songs.

• After practising racewalking at the Punjabi University in Patiala for 4 years he started training at Sports Authority of India in Bengaluru.

• In 2022, he secured a job in the Indian Navy.

• In 2022, he was not selected for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

• In 2023, he received Rs. 5,00,000 from the Punjab government to prepare for the Paris Olympics 2024.

  

• In 2024, Akshdeep Singh and Priyanka Goswami paired up for the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya and secured 18th place with a timing of 3:05:03 due to which they qualified for the marathon mixed relay event at the Paris Olympics 2024.

  

• He became the first Indian athlete to qualify for the Paris Olympics 2024.

• In 2024, Akshdeep Singh along with other athletes met Prime Minister Narendra Modi before leaving for Paris Olympics 2024.

  

• He is an avid lover of animals.

  

• He maintains his fitness by working out at the gym.