Tajinderpal Singh Toor

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tajinderpal Singh Toor

• Tajinder Pal Singh Toor is an Indian shot putter and an Asian Games gold medalist.

• His journey started in a small town in Moga district, Punjab, where he grew up. Belonging to a farmer’s family, it was very difficult for his parents to fulfil all his needs. In an interview, his mother said that Tajinderpal’s diet was equivalent to two kids during childhood. She further said,
  

  When he was young, he would often sleep with the ‘gola’ (shot) under his pillow. His day would start with eating paranthas and 10 eggs and finished too with eating.”

• During childhood, he wanted to be a cricketer. But life had something else stored for him. His father and uncle Gurnam Singh, who himself is a former Indian shotput champion, advised him to go for a shot put by looking at his strong physique.

  

• His coach Mohinder Singh Dhillon started coaching him in 2013 at Government Arts & Sports College, Jalandhar.

• During the 2018 Asian Games, Mohinder Singh yelled ‘You die of shame’ from the stands to encourage Tajinderpal to perform better. In an interview, Mohinder talked about the same and said,
  

  I wanted him to get angry. I told him ‘I have left my family for you and your father is fighting cancer. Think of us’. I think it worked.”

  

• In 2015, he held the fifth position in the shot put tournament at the World University Games.

• In June 2017, he competed at the Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships in Patiala, where he recorded his personal best of 20.40m but fell short of the Olympic qualification standard by 0.10m.

• In the Commonwealth Games that took place in the Carrara Stadium, Queensland in October 2018, Tajinder finished at eighth position in the men’s shot put category finals with a throw of 19.42m. Before that, he finished in the tenth position during the qualifying stage. Tomas Walsh from New Zealand was the top scorer in the event with a throw of 21.41m.

• In 2015, his father was diagnosed with skin cancer. His condition got better after some surgeries, but in 2018, his health got critical. In an interview, he talked about his father’s condition and said,
  

  At this stage, I know that my father is not going to live for too long. All I want to do right now is to win as many medals as I can, while he is still alive. I want to give him all the medals.”

• While he was on his way back home after the 2018 Asian Games, eagerly waiting to put his gold medal around his father’s neck, he received the news of his father’s demise.

  

• In an interview, Tajinder said that the only thing his father left him was a gun. After his father’s death, he got the gun licence transferred to his name. In an interview, he talked about this and said,
  

  He had a gun from the security point of view for the farm and that’s the only thing which he left for me.”

• He was in the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, during the Covid-19 lockdown. A few months later, when the lockdown in Patiala was lifted, Toor fractured the wrist of his throwing arm (left hand) for which he was operated. Aghast with that injury, Toor went into depression. He kept asking his coach whether he would qualify for Tokyo Olympics or not.

  

•  In March 2019, during the Federation Cup in Patiala, Toor made significant progress with a throw of 20.58m.

• In June 2021, he participated in the Indian Grand Prix-4, where he qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after setting an Asian record of 21.49m while breaking his own national record of 20.92m, surpassing Saudi Arabia’s Sultan Abdulmajeed Al-Hebshi’s 2009 record of 21.13 m.

• In 2022, he suffered an injury on his groin muscle before the qualifying round after which he was not allowed to participate in the Commonwealth Games 2022. In an interview, he talked about his injury and said,
  

  Today was a hard day for me. I couldn’t perform as I intended. Injuries have been continuously encompassing me. Last year, it was my wrist and now it’s my thigh. Just four days before the competition my groin muscle was pulled and it greatly affected my performance.”

• He has a tattoo of Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa on his left hand.

  

• He is an avid dog lover and often posts pictures of them on social media.