Neeraj Chopra
At a glance
- Sport: Javelin
- Country: India
- Date of Birth: December 24, 1997
About the athlete
Neeraj Chopra etched his name in the history books at a very young age. Chopra struggled with childhood obesity, so he joined a gym in Panipat and started participating in the Javelin Throw. After training for a year, Chopra was admitted to the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula. His coach, Naseem Ahmad, made him train in the Long-Distance Running and the Javelin Throw events. In 2014, he won a Silver Medal, his first-ever international Medal at the Youth Olympic Games Qualification in Bangkok. Impressed with his performance at several national and international tournaments, the Indian Army offered to make him a Junior Commissioned Officer in 2017, which Neeraj accepted under a sports quota.
In 2018, he won the Gold Medal in Commonwealth Games with a season-best effort of 86.47m. He threw his personal best of 87.43m at the Diamond League in Doha in the same year. On August 27, 2018, Neeraj clinched Gold at the Asian Games with a throw of 88.06m. Neeraj was out of action for eight months in 2019 due to an elbow injury. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Chopra emerged as India's first Track & Field Olympic Gold Medalist. Two years later, he topped the podium at the World Athletics Championships 2023 in Budapest, becoming India’s first-ever World Champion in any Athletics discipline.
Notable achievements
- Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – Gold Medal
- 2023 World Championships – Gold Medal
- 2022 World Championships – Silver Medal
