Neeraj Chopra (born 24 December 1997) is an Indian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw and is a JCO in the Indian Army. He is the first track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for India, and the second Olympic athletics medalist for India after Norman Pritchard, who won two silver medals at the 1900 Summer Olympics. At the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships, Chopra achieved a world under-20 record of 86.48m. He was also the flag bearer at the opening ceremony for India at the 2018 Asian Games, which marked his first Asian Games appearance. He made gold medal winning throws at the 2018 Asian Games (88.07m) and the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Chopra won the gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics on 7 August 2021 with a throw of 87.58m in her second attempt. He is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold medal (along with Abhinav Bindra), and is also the youngest Indian gold medalist in an individual event. Won a gold medal in his Olympic debut.
Early life
Chopra was born in Khandara village of Panipat district of Haryana. After local children teased him about his childhood obesity, his father enrolled him in a gymnasium in Madlauda, later he was enrolled in a gym in Panipat. While there, he also visited the nearby Panipat Sports Authority of India Centre, where javelin thrower Jaiveer Choudhary recognized his early talent. Seeing his ability to achieve 40m throw without training and impressed by Chopra's drive, Choudhary began coaching him.
Career
Chopra receiving the Arjuna Award from the President of India Ram Nath Kovind in 2018. After a year of training under her first coach, Choudhary, 13-year-old Chopra was admitted to the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, four hours away from her. The house, which at that time was one of only two facilities in the state of Haryana. Was. A synthetic runway. There, he began training under coach Naseem Ahmed, who coached him in long-distance running with the javelin throw. Initially in Tau Devi, he usually achieved a throw of around 55 metres. He soon extended his limits, and won the 2012 Junior Nationals in Lucknow, achieving a new national record throw of 68.40 metres. The following year, he entered his first international competition, the World Youth Championships in Ukraine. He won his first international medal in 2014, a silver in the Youth Olympic qualification in Bangkok. He achieved his first throw of over 70 meters at the 2014 senior nationals, followed by a world record throw of 81.04 meters in the junior category at the 2015 All India Inter-University Athletics Meet; It was his first throw of over 80 metres. Chopra returned to a national level training camp in 2015, [24] leaving Panchkula in early 2016. She won the gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games with a throw of 84.23m, where she equaled the Indian national record.
Famliy
Chopra is the son of Satish Kumar, a farmer and Saroj Devi, a homemaker; And his family is mainly a Haryanvi agricultural family based in Khandara village of Panipat district. He has two sisters.
Education
He graduated from Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College, Chandigarh and is currently pursuing Bachelor of Arts from Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, Punjab.
background
According to some reports, Neeraj Chopra's ancestral roots are from the Rod Maratha lineage of the Maratha community, whose warriors came to Haryana from Maharashtra to fight the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761; And many Maratha warrior families of Rane, Bhosale and Chopde (Chopra) communities settled in villages in the Panipat region of Haryana.
2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021)
Chopra made her Olympic debut representing India at the 2020 Summer Olympics. On 4 August 2021, he was placed in Group A, topped his group and qualified for the final in men's javelin throw with a throw of 86.65m. Chopra won the gold medal in the men's javelin throw final on 7 August 2021 with a throw of 87.58m, becoming the first Indian Olympian to win a gold medal in athletics, and the first Indian Olympic medalist in athletics since independence. He also became the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal after Abhinav Bindra, who won the gold medal in the men's 10m air rifle at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Chopra dedicated his win to sprinter Milkha Singh.
