On 7th of August Neeraj Chopra,a Subedar in the Indian Army did the long overdue and brought home India’s first gold medal in track and field with an impressive best throw of 87.58 metres. Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in the men's javelin throw event at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, becoming India's second individual Olympic gold medallist after Abhinav Bindra and gained the praises of celebrities like Usain Bolt, Mark Zuckerberg,etc. He dedicated his victory at the Tokyo Olympics to legendary sprinter Milkha Singh who recently passed away due to Covid-19.
As an event, the javelin throw was part of the ancient Olympics. The sport is said to have evolved from the usage of spear in hunting,the sport marries strength, speed and flexibility. A spear of length 2.5m is thrown while momentum is gathered by the thrower by running in a preset area.
The 23 year old star athlete was first recognised when he broke the under-20 world record at the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships.With a similar throw, he would have won a silver in 2016 Rio Olympics. International Association of Athletic Federations' (IAAF) records show Neeraj’s was the second-best outdoor throw in men’s javelin this year.
Hailing from Panipat,Neeraj Chopra comes from a family of 16 members who own a combined eight acre farmland with buffaloes and cows. Neeraj had a childhood filled with ghee,churma,sugar and fresh cream making him step into his teens as a chubby kid. With this in mind his family sent him to a fitness center in Panipat to lose weight and got into the sport by chance when he caught the eye of a fellow javelin thrower Jai Choudhary aka Jaiveer who himself was a marginal farmer’s son, hailing from Binjhol, who spotted Neeraj’s talent for javelin .
Jogging at the stadium within the winter of 2010 when Chopra caught the attention of javelin thrower Jaiveer. Neeraj threw the javelin at a distance of 35-40m the first evening when Jaiveer recounted the first time he saw Neeraj. Least to say, he was impressed.
Chopra considers Jaiveer to be the reason he joined the sport in the first place and is one of the main reasons Chopra committed himself to the sport. Chopra’s family also played a salient role in helping Chopra pursue the sport by putting their needs aside and raising resources for him.
In 2011,Chopra along with Jaiveer shifted from Panipat to Panchkula Athletics Nursery where they trained together.
Following this he went to compete in the Nationals in 2012 and achieved a new national record throw of 68.40 metres.He won his first international medal in the Youth Olympics Qualifications and went on to win a gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games and 2018 Commonwealth Games .He was also the flag-bearer for the Indian contingent during the 2018 Asian Games Parade of Nations.
With coaches like Uwe Hohn and Dr Klaus Bartoniez training him and the Indian government spending upto 4.85 crore on his training and competitions prior to the Olympics and an unfortunate elbow injury in 2019 he did all of us proud with his performance! Chopra is a beacon of light for all aspiring Indian athletes coming from small backgrounds with big dreams since he is the living embodiment of the proverb “Where there's a will there's a way”!
