On August 7, India made history when Neeraj Chopra, at 23 years old, became the first Indian to win an Olympic gold medal in athletics. With a throw of 87.58 metres in his second attempt in the men’s javelin throw event, he achieved his goal.
Chopra was born on December 24, 1997, in Khandra village, Panipat district, Haryana, to Satish Kumar and Saroj Devi. He grew up in a Haryanavi agricultural family. He is the younger of two sisters. He earned his bachelor’s degree in arts from Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, Punjab, after graduating from Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College in Chandigarh.
Chopra was bullied as a child because he was overweight, prompting his father to enroll him in a local gym. Later, he enrolled in a gym in Panipat, where Jaiveer Choudhary, a javelin thrower, saw his potential and became his first coach. Chopra, 13, was admitted to Tau Devi Lal Sports Comp after a year of training with Jaiveer.
Chopra won his first international medal in the Youth Olympics Qualification in Bangkok in 2014, a silver. Following that, in the 2015 All India Inter-University Athletics Meet, he set a world record in the junior category with a throw of 81.04 metres. Chopra was subsequently called back for a national-level training camp in 2015. In early 2016, he moved to Panchkula to train at NIS Patiala. With a throw of 84.23 metres, he tied the Indian national record and won gold in the 2016 South Asian Games.
Chopra was awarded a direct appointment as a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Rajputana Rifles with the rank of Naib Subedar after winning a gold medal at the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in Poland. In December 2016, he was formally admitted as a JCO and was granted leave to finish his training.
Chopra earned a gold medal at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. Then came the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where he set a new personal best of 86.47 metres, making him one of the rare Indian athletes to win a gold medal on their first appearance at the Games. At the Asian Games in 2018, he broke a new world record and earned India’s first gold medal in the javelin throw. In September 2018, he received the Arjuna Award.
Chopra received surgery for an elbow injury in Mumbai in May 2019. He came to South Africa in November 2019 for training under German biomechanics expert Klaus Bartoneitz after a time of recuperation. He spent the next year in India, training at the NIS Patiala, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was authorized to fly to France with his coach after weeks of struggling to obtain a travel visa. He began his 2021 international period with a gold medal-winning throw of 83.18 metres at an event in Lisbon, Portugal.
Chopra became the first Indian Olympian to get a gold medal in athletics, as well as the first post-independence Indian Olympic medalist in athletics, by earning the gold medal at the Olympics. After Abhinav Bindra, who won the gold medal in the men’s 10 m air rifle at the 2008 Summer Olympics, he is only the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal.
Chopra dedicated his victory to sprinter Milkha Singh when asked about it.
