Neeraj Chopra VSM (born 24 December 1997) is an Indian track
and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw event. A Junior Commissioned
Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army, Chopra won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics, becoming the first track and field athlete to win a gold medal for
India at the Olympics.
In the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships, Chopra achieved a
world under-20 record of 86.48 m. He participated in the 2018 Commonwealth
Games and the 2018 Asian Games, being the flag-bearer at the latter, and won
gold medals in both events. In his debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Chopra
won a gold on 7 August 2021 with a throw of 87.58m on his second attempt. As of
2021, he is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold
medal (the other being Abhinav Bindra),[6] as well as the youngest-ever Indian
gold medalist in an individual event and the only one to have won gold in his
Olympic debut.
Early career
After local children teased him about his childhood obesity,
Chopra's father enrolled him in a gymnasium at Madlauda; he was later enrolled
in a gym in Panipat. While there, he also visited the nearby Panipat Sports
Authority of India (SAI) center, where javelin thrower Jaiveer Choudhary recognized
his early talent.[when?] Observing Chopra's ability to achieve a 40-metre throw
without training and impressed by his drive, Choudhary became his first coach.
Chopra receiving the Arjuna Award from Ram Nath Kovind,
President of India, in 2018.
After training under Choudhary for a year, the 13-year-old
Chopra was admitted to the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, four hours
from his home. The sports complex was then one of only two facilities in the
state of Haryana with a synthetic runway. There, he trained under coach Naseem
Ahmad, who made him train in long-distance running along with the javelin
throw. While initially at Tau Devi, he typically achieved throws of around 55
metres. Chopra soon increased his range, and won the 2012 junior
nationals[clarification needed] in Lucknow with a new national record throw of
68.40 metres.[13] The next year, he entered his first international
competition, the World Youth Championships in Ukraine. He won his first
international medal in 2014, a silver at the Youth Olympics Qualification in
Bangkok.[14] He achieved his first throw of over 70 metres at the 2014 senior
nationals, following this up with a world record throw in the junior category
of 81.04 metres in the 2015 All India Inter-University Athletics Meet; this was
his first throw of over 80 metres.[13] Chopra received a callback for the
national-level training camp in 2015,[12] leaving Panchkula in 2016 to train at
Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala.[15] He won a gold medal at
the 2016 South Asian Games with a throw of 84.23 m, where he equalled the
Indian national record.[16]
2016 Junior World Champion and Army induction
General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff, congratulating
Chopra, gold medallist in javelin throw, and Gaurav Solanki, gold medallist in
boxing, for their performance in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Chopra won a gold medal in the 2016 IAAF World U20
Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland and set a world junior record of 86.48 m. He
however failed to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics as the cut-off date had
been 11 July, the week before the U20 championships.[16] Impressed with
Chopra's performance at the South Asian Games and his future potential, the
Indian Army offered him a direct appointment as a Junior Commissioned Officer
in the Rajputana Rifles with the rank of Naib Subedar, a rank typically not
immediately granted to athletes, who are usually recruited as non-commissioned
officers (NCO).[17] In September 2016, he left the Netaji Subhas National
Institute of Sports to train at the Sports Authority of India centre in
Banglore He was formally inducted as a JCO in December 2016, with effect from
May, and subsequently received leave to continue his training.[15]
2017–2021
Chopra won a gold medal in the 2017 Asian Athletics
Championships in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.
Chopra won gold in the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships
with a throw of 85.23 metres.[18] In the men's javelin throw at 2018
Commonwealth Games, he registered a season-best effort of 86.47 metres,
becoming the first Indian to win the javelin throw at the Commonwealth
Games.[19] In May 2018, he again broke the national record at the Doha Diamond
League with a throw of 87.43 metres.[20]
In August 2018, Chopra made his debut appearance at the
Asian Games representing India, and was also the flag-bearer for the Indian
contingent during the 2018 Asian Games Parade of Nations.[21] On 27 August, he
threw a distance of 88.06 m to win gold in the Men's javelin throw at the 2018
Asian Games and set a new Indian national record, bettering his own previous
record.[22] It was also India's first gold medal in javelin throw at the Asian
Games. Chopra was the only track and field athlete that year to be recommended
by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for the country's highest sports
award, the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna, but was awarded the Arjuna Award in
September 2018.[23] He was further rewarded by the army with an out-of-turn
promotion to subedar in November.[24]
Having suffered an elbow injury, Chopra underwent surgery in
Mumbai on 2 May 2019, the day after the qualifying competitions for the 2020
Tokyo Olympics had begun. After a period of recuperation, involving meditation
and rehabilitative training at Patiala and the IIS[clarification needed]
Vijayanagar, Chopra travelled to South Africa in November 2019 for training
under German biomechanics expert Klaus Bartoneitz.[25][26] Previously, he had
been coached by Gary Calvert,[27] Werner Daniels[28] and Uwe Hohn.[29] After a
16-month hiatus, he returned to international competition in January 2020 with
a winning throw of 87.86 metres in the Athletics Central North West League
Meeting in Potchefstroom, South Africa, which as a distance of over 85 meters
qualified him for the Tokyo Olympiad.[25]
After South Africa, Chopra travelled to Turkey for training,
but was forced to return to India in March 2020 due to the COVID-19
pandemic.[30] Owing to the pandemic and lockdown in India,[30] Chopra spent the
next year training at the NIS Patiala.[31] In late 2020, the Athletics
Federation of India and the Odisha state government aided the national javelin
team by arranging a training camp at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, which
Chopra attended from December 2020 through February 2021.[32] On 5 March 2021,
Chopra again broke his own national record with a new throw of 88.07m, which
ranked him third-best internationally.[33]
Owing to the pandemic, Chopra's visa application to travel
to Sweden for training was rejected. After weeks of attempting to secure a
visa, which Chopra described as frustrating, he was cleared to travel to Europe
with his coach following the intervention of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and
Sports and the Ministry of External Affairs.[34][31] He flew to Paris on 5 June
2021 for a mandatory quarantine period before travelling to Portugal for the
Meeting Cidade de Lisboa.[30] He opened his international season of 2021 there
with a throw of 83.18 metres, which earned him a gold medal.[35] Chopra
remained in Lisbon until 19 June before travelling to Uppsala, Sweden with his
coach for further training, which was sanctioned by the Sports Authority of
India at a cost of ₹34.85 lakh (US$49,000).[36][37]
He went on to compete in the Karlstad Meet in Sweden on 22
June, where he achieved a gold with a sub-par throw of 80.96 m. before winning
a bronze in the Kuortane Games in Finland despite achieving a throw of 86.79
m.[36][38] He attributed his reduced performance in Finland to a tendency to throw
higher than he wanted, along with having to use a different javelin as his own
was unavailable.[39] Following the Kuortane Games, Chopra travelled to Lucerne
to compete in the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern, but decided to withdraw due to
fatigue.[38] He attempted to secure a visa for the United Kingdom to enter the
Diamond League at Gateshead on 13 July, but faced difficulties due to the
pandemic and instead continued training and honing his technique in
Uppsala.[39]
2020 Tokyo Olympics
See also: Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's
javelin throw
Chopra made his debut at the Olympics representing India at
the 2020 Summer Olympics.[40] On 4 August 2021, he was placed in Group A.
Despite the effects of jet lag since flying to Tokyo from Sweden on 26 July and
a disrupted sleep schedule due to regular dope-control testing,[39][41] Chopra
topped his group and qualified for the final with a throw of 86.65 metres.[42]
As a result, Chopra won the gold medal in the final on 7
August with a throw of 87.58 m, becoming the first Indian Olympian to win a
gold medal in athletics, and the first post-independence Indian Olympic
medalist in athletics.[43] India won this medal after 121 years.[44]
According to some historians Neeraj Chopra is the first
Olympic medalist in track and field for India, but others have different
opinions. According to Dr Otto Peltzer, a former German athlete and coach who
spent many years promoting track and field sports in India, Norman Pritchard
was the first Indian track and field Olympic medallist at the 1900 Paris
Olympics. Both the International Olympic Committee and Indian Olympic
Association officially recognise Pritchard as India's first Olympic medallist
in athletics.
Chopra also became the second Indian to win an individual Olympic
gold medal after Abhinav Bindra, who won the gold medal in men's 10m air rifle
in the 2008 Summer Olympics. He dedicated his win to sprinters Milkha Singh and
P. T. Usha, both former Olympians from India.
