Revisiting Norman Pritchard’s legacy after Manu Bhaker joins him as Indian athlete to win 2 medals in one Olympics

Manu Bhaker’s history-making Paris Olympics got better on Tuesday when she won the 10m air pistol mixed team event with Sarabjot Singh. Manu Bhaker thus became the fourth individual Indian athlete to win four medals at the Olympics behind track and field athlete Norman Pritchard, wrestler Sushil Kumar and shuttler PV Sindhu.

Manu Bhaker also became the first Indian athlete in independent India to win two medals in the same edition of an Olympics. The first athlete overall to win two medals in one Olympics for India is Norman Pritchard, who won silver medals in the 200-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash events.

There is plenty of debate over whether Norman Pritchard’s medals should be considered as those won for India in the first place, because he won his two medals at the Paris 1900 Games when India was not yet an independent nation. Beside that, India had not sent a contingent to the Paris 1900 Games.

In fact, when Norman Pritchard won his two medals, they were initially credited to Great Britain. Only later, the International Olympic Committee credited them to India.

Who was Norman Pritchard?

Norman Pritchard was a British citizen. But he was born in Kolkata on January 23, 1875, to George Peterson Pritchard, an accountant in Alipore, and Helen Maynard Pritchard.

Norman Pritchard is said to have graduated from St Xavier’s College in Kolkata and then joined a well-known trading house in then Calcutta.

Why the debate about Norman Pritchard’s roots?

The official website of the Olympics, while writing about Norman Pritchard, states: “The doyen of British Olympic historians, Ian Buchanan, notes that Pritchard was a member of an old colonial family and although he was born in India, he was undisputedly British. The Indian Olympic historian, Gulu Ezekiel, claims Pritchard based on his birth and the fact that he lived in India for many years.”

Pritchard moved to England in 1900. He competed in the AAA Championships, which he entered as a member of the London AC and the Bengal Presidency AC. The British team was chosen for the 1900 Olympics based on the results of the 1900 AAA Championships, and Pritchard’s runner-up finish to Al Kraenzlein in the 120y hurdles garnered him Olympic selection. Buchanan notes that the Paris program lists him as a member of the AAA team.

Writing for The Indian Express recently, Ezekiel said he discovered that Norman’s descendants live in England.

Ezekiel also points out that myths and doubts still persist over Pritchard’s life and career in sports and movies.

He writes: “These myths crop up every four years when the Olympics rolls by. One of them is that he happened to be in Paris as a tourist during the Olympics, indicating he was a casual athlete. That is far from the truth. In fact, he was one of the leading sprinters and hurdlers of his era and took part in numerous meets in London just prior to the Olympics.”

He then also addresses the perception that Norman Pritchard was representing Great Britain not India at Paris 1900.

He writes: “The other contention that surely should be put to rest by now is by some British historians that he was representing Great Britain, not India. That has been disproved by the IOC as the medals have been credited to India in their official records. Indeed, unlike many sports persons who were born outside Britain and moved there later in life, Pritchard’s family roots in India go back three generations to the 1780s and extend two more generations after him into the 1940s. All his education was in India and his prowess in a variety of sports — athletics, rowing, rugby, golf, tennis and football — blossomed during his years in India.”

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