By Kartik Warrier
In big multi-sporting events, by default, almost every Indian fan keeps a tab on the track and field events, even if these events contain a relatively smaller number of Indians. The reason for it? Nothing can match the excitement and glamour of athletics. An event might last only for 10 seconds, but a runner and his/her fan might live a lifetime in those 10 seconds. Track and field events are the marquee attractions of every multi-sporting event, be it the Asian Games, the European Games or the Olympics.
Here is a series of events which I can assure you has happened in every Olympic Games. The typical sports buff watches the 100m race, the long jump or the shot put and then the medal ceremony which follows the event, simultaneously letting out sighs of “When will we see an Indian on the podium?” Only two athletes came close to doing the unthinkable. Milkha Singh finished fourth in the final of the 400m race at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He was one-tenth of a second slower than the bronze-medal winner! Heartbreaking? Then check this out: P.T. Usha came fourth in the 400m hurdles final at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Margin? She was one-hundredth of a second slower than the athlete who finished at third place. More painful!
Only one individual has given India track and field medals- Norman Pritchard with two silver medals at the 1900 Paris Olympics (200m and 200m hurdles). And so Independent India continued to wait. Wait, wait and more wait, until a demi-God arrived in 2021 by the name of ‘Neeraj Chopra’.
Coming Into Prominence
Now Neeraj Chopra was remotely not an unknown name when he took the field in Tokyo on 7th August 2021. He was close to qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics, before a back injury hampered his preparations. A week after the qualification date, Neeraj won a gold in the U-20 World Championships, setting a junior world record (86.48m), which surpassed that of the defending Olympic Champion Keshorn Walcott.
A very productive few years followed, with Neeraj winning gold at the 2017 Athletics Championships, 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 Asian Games. He kept breaking his own national record repeatedly in this period. An injury and subsequent surgery kept him on the sidelines for 16 months, also missing out on the 2019 World Championships. In his very first tournament after the long break, Neeraj threw a whopping 87.86m at the Athletics Central North West League Meeting in South Africa, which gave him a spot at the Tokyo Games.
The pandemic ensured that the Olympics were postponed to 2021. There were doubts lingering over whether the Games will be cancelled. Japan was going to have none of it. The Games did arrive and so did our boy from Haryana.
Make no mistake, Neeraj was a massive medal prospect. But he surely wasn’t the favourite to win gold. An interesting storyline formed a sub-plot in the final at Tokyo. German ace Johannes Vetter (who has the second-best throw ever which measures a whopping 97.76m) had claimed before the Games that “Neeraj can’t beat him to win gold”. Vetter didn’t even end up in the top 8! Neeraj, on his second attempt, threw a distance of 87.58m, and soon it became evident that only silver and bronze were available for the rest of the athletes.
The imagination of a billion fans had turned into reality. And it wasn’t just a Track and Field medal. It was gold! Just the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold, after Abhinav Bindra. The Tiranga fluttered high, and ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was played at the Japan National Stadium!
After Tokyo
Neeraj took a break after the Tokyo Olympics. He admitted that he gained a bit of weight during this period on the sidelines, but he worked hard again and came back with a bang. This has been a trait which has defined Neeraj’s career- the bigger the setback, the stronger the comeback. Neeraj was now going to set about proving his longevity. A silver at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turkey, was followed by a sensational throw of 89.94m at the Stockholm Diamond League (continues till date to be his personal best).
Another watershed moment followed- Neeraj clinched the silver medal at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene: only India’s second World Championship medal after long-jumper Anju Bobby George’s bronze in 2003. An injury prevented him from defending his Commonwealth Games gold medal, but he returned, winning the prestigious Diamond League final, becoming the first Indian to do so.
The Legend Grows
May 2023 saw another point in his bucket list ticked off: he became World Number 1! That was just one of his achievements in yet another glittering year. In August, he won India’s first ever World Championship gold medal, in Budapest. Here is an athlete who was now elevating his status so high, that he can now probably be considered one of the greatest sportspersons to represent India.
In the qualifiers of the World Championships, Neeraj effortlessly booked his spot in the finals. What his throw of 88.77m also meant was that he had simultaneously secured a quota for the Paris Olympics (a throw of 85.50m in a national or international event from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 gives automatic qualification to the athlete). Well, this qualification barrier was never too high for Neeraj, was it?
He then managed to retain the gold medal at the Asian Games. Neeraj, on his first attempt in Hangzhou, sent across a throw measuring well above 85m. But it was controversially declared null and void. Neeraj kept his composure, with his fourth attempt measuring 88.88m, enough to pip India’s Kishore Jena, which also ensured a historic 1-2 podium finish for India.
2024 till now has seen a number of first place finishes from Neeraj. He notably played his first competition in India after the gold at Tokyo- the Federation Cup in Bhubaneshwar, where he clinched gold. He was on a precautionary break recently but returned to action winning gold at the Paavo Nurmi Games. He will now be seen in the Paris Diamond League in July, before the ultimate sporting extravaganza unfolds in the same city.
Now let me give you a few stats, which might make you wonder if he is actually a human. Neeraj has been on the podium for 23 straight competitions. The last time he finished outside of the top 3 was in 2018. Out of those 23 events, he was placed first a whopping 16 times and second 6 times. In almost all these events, there were at least a few world class javelin throwers. Neeraj has not been able to cross the 90m mark which many others have- but no one has come close to matching his consistency in throwing in a band of 85m to 89m. We are now habituated to his characteristic roar, which is music to our ears, when his javelin covers a distance of 85+ metres.
Leader of the Pack
They say, when one takes the lead, more will follow. India is now unarguably the javelin hub in the world, with a few of them among the best in the world. Kishore Jena is the most promising among the newcomers- he came 5th in the 2023 World Championships, before sending across a mind-boggling throw of 87.54m at the Asian Games to give Neeraj an almighty scare. D.P. Manu is another one to watch out for. He finished 6th in the World Championships, ensuring there were three Indians in the top 6. The dream of having multiple javelin throwers from India standing on the podium during the Olympics is not a hallucination anymore- we might have an outside chance of this happening in Paris itself!
The boy, who took up javelin after the local children teased him about his childhood obesity, has brought about a revolution in India. He has nothing left to prove to anyone now, having engrained himself in the annals of Indian history.
Mind you, Neeraj is not all about his gold medals. His humility and down-to-Earth behaviour have resulted in him having fans across the globe. An incident which testifies this: at the Hangzhou Asian Games, there were a couple of Japanese athletes sitting among the members of the Indian contingent during the javelin final, cheering on Neeraj, and their claps were as loud as that of the others. He is a living book on life lessons.
He enters Paris, with the aim of scripting more history. He can become the first Indian to win two individual Olympic gold medals. The path is not easy. He will be competing with the likes of 2022 World Champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia, 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan and Max Dehning of Germany- who recently became the youngest member to join the 90m club. But if you ever had to bet your life savings and property on someone to deliver, it can be none but Neeraj Chopra!
IIT-M Sports 