Neeraj Chopra has made all Indians proud by winning medals in two successive Olympics. After winning Gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Neeraj settled for silver at Paris, just after Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan in the javelin throw event. Hopes of all Indians were pinned on the performance of 26-year-old Subedar Major in the Indian army, Neeraj Chopra. The soft-spoken and courteous to boot, athlete from Panipat in Haryana is believed to have been in the tournament carrying some injury.
Incidentally, when the emotions were running high during the Tokyo Olympics and Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem was brutally trolled by the Indians on social media, Neeraj Chopra displayed exemplary courage and gentlemanliness by supporting Nadeem publicly and urged people not to abuse him. Nadeem broke the Olympic record held by Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway (90.57m in Beijing 2008) with his 92.97 metre throw.
Neeraj Chopra secured the silver, even after 5 fouls in six throws, by sending the javelin at the 89.45 metre mark. Nadeem had one foul and his two of the remaining five throws went beyond the 90-metre mark. With this win, Neeraj Chopra is now the fifth two-time Olympic medallist from India. Others are Norman Pritchard, Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu, and Manu Bhaker. Neeraj is in the company of Sushil Kumar and PV Sindhu to win medals at two separate Olympics.
One of the best athletes 141 crore strong India has ever produced, 6ft1 inch tall Neeraj had achieved world rankings no 1 in May 2023. He has been on the roll since 2018 winning either Gold or silver in all major athletic events. He won the silver medal in 2022 and the Gold medal in the 2023 World Championships. In 2018, he won Gold in the Commonwealth final held in Australia. The same year, he won Gold at the Jakarta Asian Games, a feat he repeated five years later at Hangzhou, China.
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