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.