From Muhammad Ali’s India visit to Atlanta Olympics: The Greatest’s legend lives on

Death spares no one. Even `The Greatest’ has to go. Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, better known as Muhammad Ali was defeated for the last time. But his legend will remain on planet earth forever. An athlete, Olympic champion, civil rights activists – Ali was packed all in one but above all he was a great human being.

The Ali saga began on 5 September 1960 when he thrashed Zbigniew Ziggy Pietrzykowski of Poland in the lightweight Olympic final at Rome. If his fear of flying had stopped him from going to Rome, the world would have been so much poorer.

Just weeks before the Olympic Games, young Clay wanted to withdraw from the Games simply because he was afraid of flying. He even asked if he could go to Rome by sea. He asked if he could make his way there by train. When told neither was possible he visited an army surplus store and purchased a parachute, which he kept strapped on throughout the flight!

But later as Muhammad Ali,  the ambassador of global sport, he visited the entire globe meeting world personalities and commoners alike.

Ali met several prominent personalities, from Dalai Lama to the Pope, from American Presidents George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama to Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, from The Beatles to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Not many would know that at the peak of his career Ali had visited New Delhi. He was passing by India and late Rajiv Gandhi, a sport lover, arranged for him to make stopover at Delhi, in the mid-seventies. Hurriedly an exhibition match was fixed between him and then Indian national heavyweight champion Kaur Singh at National Stadium. As a young runner training at the National Stadium, I had the privilege to witness the bout that was actually no match. Ali simply kept penning his right hand to block punches from Kaur Singh and was talking to us youngsters standing at the ring side. Later, on the insistence of a seven-year-old boy we went up the stage and poked fingers in his ribs to see whether he was bone and muscles or steel!

In 1996, during the Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at Atlanta, the stadium was turned pitch dark for the final runner of the torch relay to lit the cauldron. In the media stands, we were contemplating all names but one, and it was him, Ali, who lit the flame. Even the local American journalists did not think it would be he, who would be bestowed with that honour. With his trembling hands holding the torch, Ali appeared on an electronic platform and it was an emotional moment for all of us. The entire stadium gave him a standing ovation, including US President Bill Clinton.

Ali has received several medals and honours. I find it rather strange that he never got the Noble Peace Prize. Even the International Olympic Committee never made him a member.

Who would have been a better man than Ali, who was named UN Messenger of Peace in 1998 and worked with poor communities through out the world for peace and poverty alleviation?

If not in life, then at least in his death should the world pay tribute to `The Greatest’ by including him in Hall of Noble Fame.