He is the reigning Olympic champion – the primary Indian sportsperson to win a gold medal on the Games in athletics (discipline occasions). Now, Chopra is the primary from the nation to win a gold medal at World Athletics Championship. Till now, the silver medal that he received in 2022 was India’s greatest return from the World Athletics Championships after Anju Bobby George’s bronze medal within the ladies’s lengthy leap again in 2003 at Paris.

Chopra has an Asian Games gold medal and a Commonwealth Games gold medal. He is a Diamond League champion too. Add to it, the U20 World Championship gold medal that he received in 2016. Neeraj is actually the golden boy of Indian sport.

Chopra is now the second Indian, after Abhinav Bindra, to concurrently maintain the Olympics and World Championships title. Bindra received the World Championships title when he was 23, and the Olympics gold at 25.

The Rise

To assume that Chopra took up javelin virtually by likelihood is one other fascinating story. In 2011, a then 14-year-old Chopra weighed 85kg. He was overweight and his household someway satisfied his to affix a health club. From his village in Khandra,  Haryana, he used to go to Panipat, located 17km away, for health club coaching. On his approach, he would go to Shivaji Stadium, the place he first threw up javelin upon the insistence of his senior Jaiveer, a national-level javelin thrower. He had discovered his calling and there was no trying again.

By 2015, he had breached the hallowed 80m mark. By 2016, he had set a world document on the Under-20 degree. In 2017, he received the Asian Championships gold medal. In 2018, he received gold medals on the Asian Games in addition to the Commonwealth Games.

The Injury

Just when he was primed to be India’s favorite contender for a gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics, he hit a roadblock. Ahead of the 2019 World Championships, he suffered a significant elbow downside on account of bone spurs in his throwing arm. He needed to endure an intense two-hour surgical procedure after which underwent a four-month rehabilitation. He finally got here again, and got here again in type.

The Comeback

In the summer season of 2021, at his maiden Olympics, with a throw of 87.58 m, he turned the primary Indian to win a gold medal on the Games in athletics (discipline occasions).

Therein lies the greatness of Chopra. Though from the skin, it may appear that he’s that wonder-boy who has the Midas contact, he has had his share of struggles. And each time, he was pinned down he got here again stronger and he threw the javelin to a higher distance.

After the Olympics, he went to interrupt his personal nationwide document twice in an area of simply over two weeks in 2022. His present document is 89.94m. Last 12 months, he received the Diamond League however missed the World Championship gold. He got here very near clinching that gold in 2022 with a throw of 88.13 m. However, he fell wanting Grenada javelin thrower Anderson Peters’ monstrous 90.54 m throw. This time he led the sphere in type although he began with a false throw. However, an try of 88.17m was sufficient for him to take the gold forward of Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem (87.82m).

And, with age on his facet, he’s in no temper to cease!

With PTI inputs