Neeraj Chopra

Subedar Major Neeraj Chopra PVSM VSM (born 24 December 1997) is an Indian track and field athlete.

Considered as the greatest Indian javelin thrower, he's a double medalist at the Olympics, World Championships, and the Asian Games.

[13] Chopra was born on 24 December 1997 in a Haryanvi Ror agricultural family in Khandra village in Panipat district of Haryana.

[20][18] In 2021, he enrolled at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, Punjab and then proceeded to complete his Bachelor of Arts degree.

[27] He finished third in the district championships, and persuaded his family to let him train at the SAI centre to hone his abilities.

[25] At the time, he and fellow javelin thrower Parminder Singh watched videos of Jan Zelezny to try and emulate his style.

[33] He also participated at 2015 Asian Athletics Championships where he finished 9th with a best throw of 70.50 m.[34] As a result of his performance, he was called to the national-level training camp at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala in early 2016.

[25] At the 2016 South Asian Games, Chopra achieved a new personal best when he won gold with a throw of 82.23 m (269.8 ft) in Guwahati on 9 February.

[11] Although his record throw was above the qualification standard for the 2016 Olympics, he failed to qualify as the cut-off date had already elapsed.

[41][42] During his stay there, he focused on strength training and honed his technique with adjustments to his stance to keep his hand raised higher during throws to improve his range.

[40] In the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Chopra registered a season-best effort of 86.47 m (283.7 ft) to win the gold medal.

[49] In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he trained with German coach Uwe Hohn, biomechanics expert Klaus Bartonietz and physiotherapist Ishaan Marwaha.

He registered a throw of 87.86 m (288.3 ft) in the Central North West Athletics League Meeting in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

[55] In late 2020, the Athletics Federation of India and the Government of Odisha arranged a training camp at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, which he attended from December 2020 to February 2021.

[55][58] He flew to Paris on 5 June 2021 for a mandatory quarantine period before travelling to Portugal for the Meeting Cidade de Lisboa.

[59] He remained in Lisbon until 19 June before travelling to Uppsala in Sweden for training sanctioned by SAI at a cost of ₹3.49 million (US$40,000).

[60] In June 2021, Chopra went on to compete in the Athletics meet in Karlstad, Sweden, where he achieved a gold with a sub-par throw of 80.96 m (265.6 ft).

[62][63] Following the Kuortane Games, he travelled to Lucerne to compete in the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern, but decided to withdraw due to fatigue.

[61] Later, he attempted to secure a visa for the Diamond League meeting at Gateshead on 13 July, but faced difficulties due to the pandemic and instead continued training in Uppsala.

[76] In June 2022 at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, he placed second with a new personal best of 89.30 m (293.0 ft) and registered another new national record.

[77][78][79] In the 2022 Diamond League, Chopra broke his own national record with a throw of 89.94 m (295.1 ft) during his second-place effort at the BAUHAUS-galan in Stockholm.

This was India's second ever medal at the World Athletics Championships after long-jumper Anju Bobby George's bronze in 2003.

[81][82] On 26 August, he registered another first place at the Athletissima at Lausanne with a throw of 89.09 m (292.3 ft) and qualified for the Diamond League final at Weltklasse Zürich.

[86] In the same month, he achieved the first position in the men's javelin throw rankings issued by World Athletics for the first time.

[91] On 15 May, Chopra participated in his first competition in India since becoming the Olympic champion and won gold at the Federation Cup 2024 with best throw of 82.27 m.[92] Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Chopra participated at Paavo Nurmi Games where he won gold with a throw of 85.97 m on 18 June.

[103] Chopra's coaching under Klaus Bartonietz, from 2021 to 2024, resulted in several wins, titles, and gold medal victories.

[142] Vogue India featured him as the Man of the Year in 2021, making him the first male athlete to star on the cover.

Chopra won the gold medal in the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar .
General Bipin Rawat , Chief of Army Staff, congratulating Neeraj Chopra (second from right) for his performance in the 2018 Commonwealth Games .
Chopra receiving the Arjuna Award from Ram Nath Kovind , President of India, on 25 September 2018
Chopra at the 2022 BAUHAUS-galan in Stockholm
Ram Nath Kovind , the President of India at the time, presenting the Padma Shri to Chopra in 2022.