Moscow Olympics hockey gold medallist MK Kaushik hospitalised with COVID-19
The 66-year-old Dronacharya Award-winning coach’s wife is also recovering from coronavirus.
Former Indian hockey player and a member of the gold medal-winning team from the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, MK Kaushik has been admitted into a nursing home in New Delhi after testing positive for COVID-19.
The 66-year-old, who also served as chief coach of the Indian women’s hockey team, was admitted on April 24 after a CT scan on his chest detected signs of pneumonia due to the infection.
MK Kaushik had developed symptoms on April 17 but earlier tests came negative.
“His condition is between, neither stable nor serious,” his son Ehsan told PTI. “His oxygen level drops drastically at night which is a major issue.”
MK Kaushik's wife is also admitted to the same nursing home after she too tested positive for the novel coronavirus but is recovering well and is likely to be discharged later this week.
MK Kaushik was a vital member of the Indian team that won the gold medal at Moscow 1980. The former Indian hockey player from Haryana scored three goals at the 1980 Olympics, including one in the final where India beat Spain for their eighth Olympic title.
India, led by Vasudevan Baskaran then, enjoyed an unbeaten run in the competition winning three and drawing two of their five matches in the preliminary stages to finish second behind Spain and qualify for the gold medal match.
In what was an end-to-end final at the Dynamo Minor Arena, the Indians won 4-3 courtesy of Mohamed Shahid’s heroics.
MK Kaushik was conferred the Arjuna Award in 1998 while his contributions as a coach were recognised with the Dronacharya Award in 2002.