Budhia Singh
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Native name | ବୁଦ୍ଧିଆ ସିଂ(Odia) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Born | 2002 (age 14–15) Bhubaneswar, Khurdha District, Odisha |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Marathon |
Budhia Awooga Singh (born 2002)) is an Indian boy and the world's youngest marathon runner. Budhia Singh was born in the state of Odisha. He ran from Puri to Bhubaneswar at the age of four covering 65 kilometres (40 mi) in seven hours and two minutes and was listed as the world's youngest marathon runner in the Limca book of records in the year 2006.
In a February 2016 followup to an earlier (2008) story about him, Runner's World noted that Budhia Singh remains a legend in his home state of Odisha, India.
Singh was born in 2002 to a family in Odisha. His father died in his early age. Because of poverty Singh's mother sold him to a traveling salesman for ₹850 in 2004. Because of the ill-treatment thereafter, his mother sought out Biranchi Das, a local judo coach and orphanage operator, and asked him to take the boy on. Biranchi paid back the salesman the 850 and Budhia came to live with Biranchi Das and the rest of the orphans under Biranchi's charge, at the local Judo Hall. One day, Biranchi Das caught him being a "saucy lad". He punished him by making him run, but then forgot about him; he returned after five hours and Budhia was still running. After medical check up his heart was found to be normal even after running for hours. He then began to train Budhia to run marathons. By the age of four, Budhia had run and completed 50 marathons.
Budhia's running ability has led to celebrity status and he has appeared in a number of television commercials. These commercials and Budhia's fame allegedly led to significant financial gains on the part of the late Mr. Biranchi Das, Budhia's coach, which led to accusations of exploitation against Mr. Das, and an official inquiry by Indian child welfare officials was launched on 4 January 2006; however, Mr. Das refuted the allegations.
A feature-length documentary called Marathon Boy was released in 2011 covering Budhia and Das for five years starting in 2006. The documentary was funded by HBO & BBC Storyville. In the film, Budhia makes a withdrawal of his accusations against Das. The film Marathon Boy (2011) was nominated for an EMMY.
By 2015, Budhia, now 13, was just like any other 150-odd children at the Kalinga stadium hostel in Bhubaneswar. He doesn’t run for kilometres anymore. Hours of rigorous session has reduced to 1–2 hours of conditional training per day. "He cannot even win his school race these days. Budhia used to run for kilometres. But his coach never tested his ability with other sprinters before he was shoved into the sports hostel… His future doesn’t look promising," opines Sambit Mohapatra, a veteran sports journalist. Despite this, Singh himself has stated he would like to one day represent India at the Olympics in men's marathon.
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