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It was the year 2011 when Neeraj Chopra first held a javelin in his hand. Back then, Neeraj was a little overweight and his family persuaded him to play sports to shed some weight. Neeraj was initially drawn into playing cricket and volleyball before he was spotted by Jai Choudhary, who himself was a national-level javelin thrower.
However, Neeraj saw javelin as just a means of recreation to get his body in shape. Bringing Olympic glory to the nation would not even have been his distant dream.
However, it was 2013 when something changed drastically for Neeraj. He started to take the sport more seriously. He emerged as the best Indian javelin thrower in the under-18 category that year. He started to work really hard on his fitness and his throws were reaching the distances where no other Indian thrower in the junior circuit had ever reached before.
By the end of 2015, Neeraj Chopra had established himself as India's best javelin thrower in the senior division as well. His personal best with the 800 gram spear had improved from 69.66 meters in 2013 to 81.04 meters in 2015. Neeraj's improved graph had put him in the reckoning of qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, fate had other ideas for him.
A mixed bag in 2016
Neeraj Chopra began the year 2016 with a brilliant win at the 2016 South Asian Games when he threw the javelin to a distance of 82.23 meters. Although he missed the Rio Olympics qualification mark by just 0.77 meters in that event, there was a genuine hope that he would breach that mark before the qualification timelines ended as the South Asian Games had taken place quite early in the season.
Neeraj participated in 7 events post the 2016 South Asian Games before the end of qualification timeline for the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, he was not able to breach the qualification mark of 83 meters in any of those events. The burden of expectations had affected his performance quite a bit as he failed to register a mark beyond 80 meters before the end of the qualification timeline on 11th of July, 2016.
However, after the end of the qualification timeline for the Rio Olympics, Neeraj Chopra found his mojo back as he won a gold medal at the World Under 20 Athletics Championships with a world record throw of 86.48 meters in 2016. This achievement gave him a major confidence boost and he came back as a much stronger athlete after 2016.
A man of big championships
Although Neeraj Chopra has never been a big 90 meter javelin thrower, he has consistently thrown over 83 meters. At major championships, his record gets even better. For instance, 2017 was a rather subdued year for Neeraj Chopra as he produced only a couple of throws over 85 meters and one of those throws won him a gold medal at the Asian Athletics Championships.
In 2018, he produced some of the best performances of his career at the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games with the best efforts of 88.06 meters and 86.47 meters, the former being a new national record. His incredible performance on the big stages made him a genuine contender to win the world title in 2019. However, an injury to his elbow meant he was pushed out of contention for the whole of 2019.
The mental strength of Neeraj Chopra
What sets Neeraj Chopra apart is his impeccable mental strength. While there are quite a few Indian track and field athletes who are capable of winning a global medal if they match their best performances at that level, only Neeraj Chopra has successfully managed to do so. This speaks volumes about his mental strength.
Neeraj Chopra was sidelined for the whole of 2019 due to an elbow surgery. 2019 was a very important year in the Tokyo Olympic qualification cycle for track and field events. He would have been raring to go post his surgery.
However, Neeraj realized the need to have a smooth recovery before he participated in any event. His patience paid him rich dividends, as in his 1st competition post recovery, he achieved the Tokyo Olympics qualification mark with an effort of 87.86 meters, which incidentally was his 2nd best throw ever.
After securing his Olympic quota, as Neeraj Chopra was preparing for the Tokyo games, another calamity in the form of COVID lockdown struck. He lost all his momentum and had to regather his form for the Olympics that got delayed by an year. However, again he was too determined to be swayed away from his goal of becoming an Olympic medalist. He channeled his focus back as soon as the pandemic mellowed down.
Olympic glory that was meant to be
Although India had never won an Olympic medal post independence in track and field events at the summer games, the hype surrounding Neeraj Chopra winning a medal was surreal. He was ranked 4th on the top lists of men's javelin throw event in 2021 leading up to Tokyo behind Johannes Vetter of Germany, Marcin Krukowski of Poland, and Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago.
However, both Krukowski and Walcott were eliminated in the qualification rounds of the Tokyo Olympics. The conditions in Tokyo were such that quite a few pre-tournament favorites felt the wrath of it.
But Neeraj Chopra was in his zone. He topped the qualification round with a throw of 86.65 meters. Vetter also made it to the finals with a rather subdued effort of 85.64 meters. It looked as though the humid and muggy conditions of Tokyo were much better suited to Neeraj.
Neeraj Chopra achieved a mark of 88.06 meters in somewhat similar conditions at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. All of a sudden, the showdown between Neeraj Chopra and Johannes Vetter had shifted towards the former. However, in an anti-climactic turn of events, the 2017 World Champion bowed out of the finals after finishing out of the top 8 after three throws.
Meanwhile, Neeraj was as focussed as a hawk. His first-round attempt of 87.03 meters in the finals set a marker for other athletes in the field. He bettered it with his 2nd round throw that soared long in the Tokyo night sky to a distance of 87.58 meters. The 2017 World Athletics Championship silver medalist, Jakub Vadlejch, gave his best in the 5th round but fell short of Neeraj's mark by almost a meter. Neeraj Chopra was not to be denied a chunk of global sporting history on the day.
Although Neeraj has been through a lot of ups and downs in his career, it is his comeback spirit that makes him the champion athlete that he is. Indeed, Indians will cherish Neeraj's Olympic crown for decades to come.
