Biography of neeraj chopra

Neeraj chopra

Neeraj Chopra, the javelin thrower who made history by winning India's first track and field gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics on August 7, 2021, was born on December 24, 1997 into a family farmer in Khandra village near Panipat, Haryana. He graduated from Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College, Chandigarh . 

His mother Saroj Devi works as a housewife, while his father Satish Kumar is a farmer.Chopra was always persuaded to participate in sports by his family because he was overweight. Later, he decided to try his hand at javelin throwing and began training at Panipat's Shivaji Stadium.

The 23-year-old athlete, who had been training for a year, was accepted to the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, where his instructor, Naseem Ahmad, ordered him practise for both the javelin throw and long distance running.

Achievement

Neeraj Chopra won the U-16 national championship by the year's end. At the Youth Olympics Qualification in Bangkok in 2014, he took home the first ever international medal (silver). He won his first medal in a senior national championship in 2015 in the Inter-State competition in Chennai with a throw of 77.33 metres. 

He won gold at the National Open Championships in Kolkata a few months later. Neeraj Chopra achieved success in 2016 when he won the gold medal at the South Asian Games in Guwahati with a throw of 82.23 metres.

Under the direction of Werner Daniels, Gary Calvert, and Uwe Hohn, he furthered his talent development.

The Indian Army chose to promote him to Junior Commission Officer in 2017 after being pleased with his performance at various national and international competitions. A straight appointment as a Junior Commissioned Officer with the rank of "Naib Subedar" in the Rajputana Rifles was made available to him.

Chopra was chosen for training at the Army Sports Institute in Pune and the "Mission Olympics Wing" after enlisting in the Army. The Indian Army has launched the Mission Olympics Wing to find and prepare promising athletes across 11 sports for various regional, national, and international tournaments.

In 2018, he threw a personal best of 87.43 metres at the Diamond League in Doha and went on to win the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games with a season-best effort of 86.47 metres. Neeraj won the Asian Games gold on August 27 with a throw of 88.06 metres. Due to an elbow injury, the athlete missed eight months of competition in 2019.

Tokyo 2021 Olympics

Neeraj Chopra won India's first Olympic gold medal in track and field on August 7, 2021. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, he made his best throw of 87.58 metres on his second try to win gold for India. After Abhinav Bindra, he is now the second Indian to win a gold medal in an individual event.

He achieved Olympic qualification with a throw of 87.86 metres in the ACNE League. With his fourth attempt, he surpassed the 85-meter Olympic qualifying mark, winning the international competition.

He started out throwing the spear 81.76 metres and became better with each attempt. In his second and third tries, he was able to throw 82 metres and 82.57 metres, respectively.

Neeraj Chopra received honours

Neeraj Chopra received the Arjuna Award in 2018 and the Vishist Seva Medal (VSM) in 2020 for his outstanding athletic achievements.