Tokyo 2020 : Neeraj Chopra was once overweight. He is now an Olympic gold medallist
Tokyo Olympics:Neeraj Chopra won the men’s javelin on Saturday with a best throw of 87.58 metres, claiming a historic first Olympic gold in athletics for India. Chopra, the 2018 Commonwealth champion, seized the lead after reaching the 87.03 mark with his first attempt, a distance no other competitor achieved during the final.
Neeraj Chopra of India gestures after competing
HIGHLIGHTS
- Neeraj Chopra dominates javelin final to win Olympic gold for India
- Neeraj Chopra wins gold medal with the best throw of 87.58 in the men’s javelin final
- Neeraj Chopra wins historic athletics gold to join Abhinav Bindra in elite list.
However, five years later, the boy from Panipat’s Khandra village scripted history as he became the first Indian track and field and second Indian athlete to win an Olympic gold.
Neeraj Chopra won the men’s javelin on Saturday with a best throw of 87.58 metres, claiming a historic first Olympic gold in athletics for India.
The Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch won silver with a best attempt of 86.67 metres and Vitezslav Vesely claimed the bronze with 85.44.
Chopra, the 2018 Commonwealth champion, seized the lead after reaching the 87.03 mark with his first attempt, a distance no other competitor achieved during the final, winning India’s first gold of the Tokyo Games, as his overjoyed teammates and coaches watched from the stands.
An overweight kid
The 23-year-old, who created history for India at the Tokyo Olympics, had an obese childhood.
A regular intake of ghee, makkhan, malai had quite a telling effect on Neeraj. At 13, he weighed more than 80 kilos and was bordering on obesity.
Neeraj’s uncle, Bhim Chopra, took him to the Panipat Sports Stadium gymnasium in 2011 and instructed the trainers there to get Neeraj back into shape.
“Kids at his age started to bully him because he was fat. So I took him to the gym so that he could shed a few kilos,” Bhim Chopra told IndiaToday.In.
How the journey started
Little did Neeraj’s family know that after completing his gym session, he started going to the Panipat SAI Centre.
“Hume toh pata bhi nahi chala isne kab bhala fekne start kar diya (We had no clue that he had started throwing javelin). One day his photo came in the local newspaper, he has won an inter-district competition. Then only we came to know,” recalls Bhim Chopra.
“No one in our family has any idea about javelin. We first thought, ‘bhala fekna bhi khel hota hai kya’ (Javelin throw is also a sport),” added Bhim.
Neeraj was coaxed into javelin by a senior named Jaiveer, who taught him the basic skills at the Panipat Sai Centre.
Jaiveer, who is currently a coach at NIS Patiala, fondly remembers how he coaxed Neeraj into javelin.
“He used to come at the track everyday. One fine day I asked him bhala fekega (will you through the javelin). He nodded. When he threw his first javelin, I looked at my fellow athletes, and the first word that came from my mouth was ‘ye to natural hai’ (He is a natural talent),” said Jaiveer, under whom Neeraj started training in 2011.
After a couple of years, Neeraj shifted his base to Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula and trained there till he got a call for the national camp in 2015.
In the following year, Neeraj created the U-20 record in Poland in 2016 and put Khandra on the global map.
In the past five years, Neeraj has gone from strength to strength.
He won gold at both the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati and the 2017 Asian Athletics Championship in Bhubaneshwar. In the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix Athletics Meet in Jiaxing, China, Neeraj also bagged the silver medal. In 2018, he went on to win gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in Jakarta.
A humble background
Neeraj’s home, Panipat’s Khandra village, falls in Madlauda tehsil in Panipat. Most of the residents are farmers.
Neeraj’s father Satish Kumar, too, is one and owns one and a half acres of land. Neeraj has two sisters and was raised in a joint family of nine children.
“It was tough to raise nine children. We have a little bit of farm land, and it has been a constant struggle. For the last few years, the yield hasn’t been good. But we made sure Neeraj’s training wasn’t hampered,” said Neeraj’s uncle.
