Meet Ronaldo and David Beckham - Indian cycling’s medal hopes at Commonwealth Games 2022

At the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, India will have Ronaldo and David Beckham pedalling for a billion dreams.

The statement may confuse a lot of sports fans. After all, the world knows Ronaldo, both Cristiano or Luís Nazário de Lima, and David Beckham as icons of world football. Both legends in their own right.

Their Indian namesakes, Ronaldo Laitonjam Singh and David Beckham, however, have very little to do with football.

Instead, the two youngsters have been dominating the Indian cycling scene in recent years and will be the country’s biggest hopes for a first medal in the sport at Birmingham 2022, starting later this month.

Here’s a closer look at the cyclists.

Indian cyclist Ronaldo Singh

Hailing from India’s northeastern state of Manipur, Ronaldo Singh was born on June 22, 2002.

Curiously, his name wasn’t quite inspired by either of the two usual suspects - Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo or ace Brazilian striker Ronaldo de Lima. He was named after another Brazilian football great, Ronaldinho Gaucho.

Though he became popular as Ronaldinho in world football, it’s a little-known fact that Ronaldinho Gaucho’s real name is Ronaldo de Assis Moreira. He was nicknamed Ronaldinho as a child because of his small stature (inho in Portuguese means small) and the name stuck throughout his career.

The story of Ronaldo Singh’s naming began a day prior to his birth, June 21, 2002. On that day, Sven-Göran Eriksson’s England were facing Brazil in the quarter-finals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup at the Shizuoka Stadium in Japan.

The match is famous in football history for Ronaldinho’s iconic free-kick which looped over England goalkeeper David Seaman and won Brazil the fixture. It is, to date, one of the most recognisable goals in football history.

At the time, CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) jawan Roben Singh, Ronaldo Singh’s father, was posted in Kashmir’s Srinagar and was watching the match with his colleagues. As Ronaldinho teed up his free kick, Roben made a wager that it would go in.

As the story goes, exactly at the moment the ball rippled the net, the telephone rang and Roben Singh found out that his wife was going into labour in his hometown of Imphal almost 2,000kms away.

“Just as the ball went in the goal, I must have started making an appearance,” Ronaldo Singh quipped during an interview with the Hindu. “I think my dad won some money that day. That's probably why I got that name. He felt I was very lucky for him.”

Despite his name’s football connection and Manipur being a hotbed for Indian football, Ronaldo Singh never quite warmed up to the sport and admits he can’t even kick a ball properly.

Instead, he tried out various other options like diving, gymnastics, swimming, and even a little break dancing, before discovering cycling at the age of 14 during a talent hunt competition in his hometown.

He got selected and it didn’t take him long to make a mark. Aged 17, Ronaldo Singh teamed up with Y Rojit Singh, Jemsh Singh and Esow Alban to win a gold medal in the men’s team sprint at the 2019 world junior cycling championships in Germany. It was India’s first-ever gold medal at the cycling worlds, junior or senior.

Individual laurels also followed as he won the junior men’s keirin gold at the Asian Track Cycling Championships 2019 in South Korea. Later that year, Ronaldo Singh became the junior world No. 1 in keirin, individual sprint and time trial - all three individual sprint events in cycling. Along with Rojit Singh, Ronaldo also topped the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) rankings for the junior team sprint.

Though his progress was temporarily halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ronaldo Singh grabbed the headlines in 2022 again as he became the first Indian senior cyclist to win an individual silver medal at the Asian Track Cycling Championships, after finishing second in the men’s elite sprint race in New Delhi.

Ronaldo Singh also won a bronze in the men's 1km time trial and helped India claim bronze in the men’s team sprint at the continental meet. The same event also saw him set the new men’s 200m flying time trial by clocking 9.46 seconds - the first time an Indian managed to dip below the 10s mark in the category.

Indian cyclist David Beckham

David Beckham from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the southernmost part of India, shot to fame after winning multiple gold medals in the under-17 boys’ category at the Khelo India Youth Games 2020 held in Guwahati, Assam.

A year younger than Ronaldo Singh, David Beckham took up the sport only in 2017 and is still finding his way into professional cycling.

In 2021, David Beckham won his first international medals, a gold and a silver in sprint and keirin, respectively, at a meet in Portugal. He was also part of the Indian team sprint squad, alongside Ronaldo, which won the bronze at the Asian Track Cycling Championships 2022.

David’s entire family is a big fan of former Manchester United and Real Madrid winger David Beckham and decided to name him after the English winger.

Unlike Ronaldo Singh, though, David Beckham is a big football fan and has even played in the Subroto Cup - India’s top inter-school football competition. He took up cycling on the insistence of his grandfather.

David Beckham lost his father during a tsunami in 2004 and his mother passed away due to an infection 10 years later. He has been living with his grandfather since he was 11.