Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, had to settle for a silver at the Paris Olympics 2024. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem took the gold with a Games record throw of 92.97m. Despite becoming the only Indian track and field athlete to win multiple Olympic medals, Neeraj remains humble as ever.
In a viral video, Neeraj was seen apologizing to the fans after failing to defend his javelin throw crown. “I don’t have much to say, but I’ve brought something to show you (silver medal). Sorry, like last time, there was no national anthem played, what I had thought, didn’t happen but medal is medal, I had worked hard and winning a medal for the country and taking a lap of the track with the flag, that’s a different feeling all together,” Neeraj told the fans in the viral video.
Chopra bagged the silver at the Paris showpiece with a throw of 89.45m behind Pakistan’s Arshad, who hurled the javelin to 92.97m, an Olympic record. Anderson Peters of Grenada came third with a throw of 88.54m among the field that included some high-profile javelin throwers like Julian Webber, Jakub Vadlejch, and Julius Yego.
Neeraj expressed dissatisfaction with his performance and revealed that the last two to three years were not good for him in terms of fitness. “It was a good throw but I am not that happy with my performance today. My technique and runway were not that good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled,” Neeraj said according to Olympics.com.
“(For my) second throw I believed to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run is not so good, you cannot throw very far,” added Neeraj.
The Indian ace javelin thrower, who also is the current Asian Games champion, said that injuries leading to his title defense in Paris made some difference and he will have to work on being injury-free and on his technique. “The last two or three years were not so good for me. I am always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique,” the 26-year-old added.
