The Olympic star, Subedar Major Neeraj Chopra turns 27 today. Well, who doesn’t know the man with an arm that only aims at the Gold. Kids adore him calling Neeraj bhaiya with the javelin. The young man has brought India glory and fortune at quite a young age. Today as the Olympian enters in a New year of achievements full of happiness, we celebrate the star and his bests. Here’s a complete timeline of events-
Biography
Neeraj Chopra was born on 24th December 1997 in Khandra village, Panipat district of Haryana to parents Saroj Devi and Satish Chopra. He belongs to a Haryanvi Ror agricultural family, where both of his parents are farmers. His primary schooling took place at BVN Public school, Panipat. Due to obesity, he got enrolled to a gym. That’s where he first got introduced to Javelin throw and took up the sport eventually.
At the age of 13, he moved to Tau Devi Lal Sports complex at Panchkula for his training, one of the only two facilities in Haryana with a synthetic runway. Neeraj completed his further schooling from Dayanand Vedic college, Chandigarh. While studying at school, alongside he won National Javelin Championships in 2012 and 2014. Seeing his sports achievements, Neeraj was recruited in the Indian Army in 2016.
From the Indian Army only, Neeraj got selected for the Mission Olympics Wing training at the Army Sports Institute in Pune. In 2021, he enrolled for the Bachelor in Arts degree at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar.
Career beginnings
After a trial at the Sports Authority of India, Neeraj began his formal training of Javelin. He could manage third position at the District Championship.
At the National Junior Athletics Championships in Lucknow, Neeraj won Gold with a new junior national record throw (68.40m).
Neeraj competed at the World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine. It was his first international competition where he finished 19th in the overall classification.
Chopra’s first international medal came in 2014 where he won silver at the Youth Olympics qualification in Bangkok.
In 2015, Neeraj broke the World Junior record at the All India Inter- University Athletics meet. In the same year, he finished fifth at the National games and ninth at the Asian Athletics Championships.
The turning point came when Neeraj was called at the national level training camp at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala (2016).
South Asian Games (2016): Gold with new personal best of 82.23m at Guwahati.
2016 IAAF World U-20 Championships in Poland: Gold medal with a throw of 86.48 m that set a new world junior record. He also became the first Indian javelin player to hold the national senior record and world junior record at the same time.
Officially inducted as the Junior Commissioned officer in Indian Army. And then a rank of Naib Subedar in the Rajputana rifles.
2017 Asian Athletics Championships: Gold for Neeraj
2017 World Championships: 15th in overall qualification
2018 Common wealth games: Gold medal with season best effort of 86.47m. First Indian to win the common wealth medal.
August 2018: Gold at the Asian Games, first for Neeraj and first for India. It was his debut at the games where he was even the flagbearer of India.
Neeraj had a year of injuries, surgeries in 2019. But he could manage it and had a comeback in 2021, when he began his international season with a gold.
June 2021: Gold at the Athletics meet in Karlstad, Sweden. In the subsequent games in Finland, Neeraj won bronze medal.
The World Champion arrives with new records (2021 – 2024)
Neeraj Chopra, the reigning World Champion arrived in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics. On 7th August, Neeraj Chopra scripted history by clinching a gold in his second attempt at the final with a throw of 87.58 m. Neeraj became the first Indian to win a Gold medal in Athletics, also the first Indian in athletics post- independence. He is the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold after Abhinav Bindra. And the first Asian Athlete to win an Olympic gold. Neeraj was also the youngest ever Indian Olympic Gold medalist in an individual event and a first to win a medal on Olympic debut.
Following the Olympic win, Neeraj registered World No.2 in Men’s javelin throw rankings.
June 2022: Second at Paavo Nurmi Games with new personal best at 89.30 m.
2022 Diamond League: Neeraj broke his own national record with a throw of 89.94 m.
July 2022: Silver medal at the World Athletics Championships (India’s second ever medal at the championships).
2022: Diamond League finals where Neeraj won gold and qualified for the 2023 World Championships.
May 2023: Top spot at the Doha Diamond league with a throw of 88.67 m. Neeraj placed at the first position of the Men’s Javelin throw rankings issued by the World Athletics.
August 2023: Gold medal at the World Athletics Championships, making Neeraj the first Indian to win gold at the event.
October 2023: Second gold at the Asian games with season best throw of 88.88 m.
2024: Finished second at the Doha Diamond league.
Neeraj won the gold at the Federation cup in India and the Paavo Nurmi games before the Paris Olympics.
For the qualification in the finals at the Paris Olympics, Neeraj in his first attempt at 89.34 m secured the top spot of the table. He won the silver medal with a throw at 89.45 m.
After the two Olympic wins, Neeraj became fifth individual medalist from India and the first one to win a gold and silver combination.
Neeraj was placed second at the Lausanne Diamond League javelin throw competition.
For Neeraj’s contribution to the sport he has been honored by the Government of India with:
Arjuna Award for sporting excellence in 2018,
Khel Ratna Award which is the highest sporting honor in the country in 2021,
Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honor in 2022,
Apart from this, Neeraj Chopra was also named as Sportsman of the year (2021) by The Times of India. The Army Sports Institute Stadium in Pune is now named as Neeraj Chopra stadium. Neeraj also got featured on Vogue India’s cover named as the Man of the Year (2021).
Now, we know why Neeraj Chopra is the most loved sport athlete of India. The achievements of the star are many, and we even look for more. As said true, the best of the star is yet to come. Wishing Neeraj a new milestone year with a gold medal from every event he steps into!