Know the thrilling story of Neeraj Chopra creating history in Olympics
Neeraj Chopra has become the first Indian player to win a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
He put India’s first gold medal in the bag with 87.58m javelin throw.
Neeraj threw 87.03 meters in his first attempt, 87.58 in the second and 76.79 meters in the third attempt.
In this competition, the Czech players came in second and third place.
With this victory of Neeraj Chopra, India has 7 medals in Tokyo Olympics and this is India’s new record for getting the most medals in any one Olympic Games.
Earlier, India had won six medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
With this, Neeraj has become only the second player to win gold for India in the individual event of the Olympics. Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal for India in the 10m rifle shooting at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Neeraj Chopra, playing in the Olympics for the first time, topped both the groups in the qualification round. Then the 23-year-old athlete had thrown 86.65 meters.
Neeraj broke his own national record with 88.07m javelin throw at the Indian Grand Prix-3 in March this year.
In the month of June, he won the gold medal in the Meeting Cidade de Lisboa tournament held in Lisbon city of Portugal.
The story started from the village of Panipat
Neeraj is only the second Indian athlete after Anju Bobby George to win a gold medal in any major athletics championship in the world.
The story of Neeraj begins from a small village in Panipat. Here in his boyhood, Neeraj used to be heavy – weighing about 80 kg. Wearing kurta pyjama, Neeraj was called Sarpanch by all.
In order to improve his fitness, he started going to the stadium in Panipat and tried his hand at Javelin at the behest of others. And from there the journey started.
In search of better facilities, Neeraj shifted to Panchkula and for the first time he faced national level players. They started getting better facilities.
When he started playing at the national level, instead of the poor quality javelin, he got a good javelin in hand. Gradually, there was a change in Neeraj’s game.
Made his Mark Internationally
When India celebrated the medals of PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik in 2016, a new star was rising elsewhere in the athletics world.
This is the same year when Neeraj won the gold medal at the U-20 World Championship in Poland.
Soon this young player started to dominate the international level. He won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast with a javelin throw of 86.47 meters, and in the Asian Games in 2018, he set a national record in the javelin throw of 88.07 meters and also won a gold medal.
Injury put in Trouble
But 2019 was very difficult for Neeraj Chopra. He could not play due to a shoulder injury and had to rest for several months after surgery. Then by the time of 2020, international competitions could not be held due to Corona.
However, this is not the first time that Neeraj has suffered so much due to injury.
In 2012, when he was playing basketball, he broke his wrist. The same wrist with which he throws. Then Neeraj had said that once he felt that he might not be able to play.
But with the hard work of Neeraj and the efforts of his team, he crossed that stage too.
In today’s date, even though he has foreign coaches, biomechanical experts, but till around 2015, Neeraj trained himself in a way, in which the risk of injury remains high. Only after that he started getting good coaches and other facilities.
Started eating non-veg for sports
Neeraj missed out on playing in the Rio Olympics as the qualifying deadline had passed by the time he threw the qualification mark.
It was a heart breaking experience for Neeraj. But in Tokyo, Neeraj did not let this happen.
Javelin is Neeraj’s passion, but Neeraj is also very fond of riding a bike as well as Haryanvi Raginis. Punjabi songs and Babbu Maan remain in his playlist.
Neeraj, once a vegetarian, has now started eating non-veg because of his sport.
When it comes to food, the player has to follow the diet, but he considers Golgappas as his favourite junk food.
Because of his long hair, people also know him as Mowgli on social media. Maybe because of the long hair and agility. This agility has brought Neeraj to the Olympics. Neeraj is now 23 years old and he is eyeing the 2024 Paris Olympics.
