Neeraj Chopra’s rise from a chubby village kid to Indian sporting great

NEW DELHI: For someone who was cajoled into taking up sport to shed weight, Neeraj Chopra’s rise to stardom from a Haryana village has been nothing short of spectacular, and at 25, he is on course to becoming one of India’s greatest sporting icons.

Two years ago, his spear soared high into the Tokyo sky as he became the country’s first Olympics track and field gold medal winner. He was just 23, as he became only the second Indian to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics after legendary shooter Abhinav Bindra. A star was born overnight in a country that had for long craved for the ultimate success in sport’s biggest platform.

Before Bindra, who won the 10m air rifle gold in 2008 Beijing Olympics, India’s eight other yellow metals at the Games had come from hockey, a team game.

With his gold medal on Sunday in the World Championships, the legend of Chopra continued to grow.

He is now only the second Indian -- again after Bindra -- to simultaneously hold the Olympics and World Championships title. Bindra won the World Championships title when he was 23, and the Olympics gold at 25. With age on his side, Chopra is bound to achieve more success if he stays fit. He will have two Olympics and two World Championships before he turns 30.

The world junior championships triumph in 2016 heralded Chopra’s rise on the world stage but it was the gold in Tokyo in 2021 that etched his name in Indian sporting history.

The adulation showered on him was unprecedented; it was at par with if not more than some of the cricket icons.

He was the toast of the nation and having attended so many felicitation programmes on one occasion exhaustion and fever forced him to leave a welcome function near his village.

He later revealed that he had put on weight after missing training due to the many felicitation functions he had attended after the historic success in Tokyo. Chopra found himself among the most-searched Indian personalities online and ranked above the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in Google searches in India. After his Tokyo triumph, Chopra’s brand value skyrocketed with top brand sponsors lining up for him.

His brand value was compared with people like Kohli and his Instagram and Twitter followers swelled instantly.

In December last year, Chopra dislodged the iconic world record holder sprinter Usain Bolt as the ‘most visible’ and ‘written-about’ athlete in the world. Chopra led a star-studded field in terms of media coverage with 812 articles published in his name, followed by Jamaican sprint trio of Elaine Thompson-Herah (751), Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce (698) and Shericka Jackson (679).

Athletics Federation of India president Adille Sumariwalla said recently that Chopra’s Tokyo Olympics gold has made parents think that there is a career beyond cricket in India.

Sumariwalla may not be off the mark as more than half a dozen Indians are currently capable of hurling the spear above 80m and three Indians, including Chopra, featured in the World Championships men’s javelin final on Sunday.

August 7, the day Chopra won gold in Tokyo, is now being celebrated as National Javelin Day.