Injuries had their say, but Neeraj Chopra fought like a champion

“The final will be a cracker," were Neeraj’s words after he qualified for the men’s javelin final at the Paris Olympics 2024, and so it turned out to be.

The gold went to Arshad Nadeem after a monster 92.97m throw - an astonishing 2.4m better than the previous Olympic record of 90.57m set by Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Paris Olympics: News, schedule, medals tally and more

Neeraj had won gold at Tokyo Summer Games in 2021 with a throw of 87.58m. That throw on Thursday would have only earned him a sixth spot. It was that competitive a field at the Stade de France as thousands packed the stands to see which man would hurl the 800-gram javelin the farthest.

Despite the gold slipping from his hands, Neeraj enriched his Olympic legacy with an 89.45m throw and a silver medal. It must be the first instance in Indian sporting history that the whole nation expected nothing less than gold from an individual athlete.

The silver wasn’t bad at all.

His second Olympic medal makes Neeraj only the fifth Indian individual athlete after Norman Pritchard, Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu, and Manu Bhaker to win multiple medals at the Games and only the javelin thrower has a gold in his collection. Neeraj is also the third after Sushil and Sindhu to win a medal at two different editions of the Olympics - a good way to judge an athlete’s longevity and impact.

Arshad after winning gold: Rivalry with Neeraj Chopra ‘is there, no doubt’

Still, missing the gold hurts, right?

It hurts him more than us.

Unlike some of the other top Indian athletes like Avinash Sable and Jyothi Yarraji who were nowhere close to their season bests, Neeraj, who had been struggling with adductor muscle injuries, registered his season best of 89.45m, just behind his personal best of 89.94m.

“It was a good throw but I’m not that happy with my performance today,” Neeraj did not mince his words while assessing his performance. “My technique and runway was not that good. (I managed) only one throw, the rest I fouled.

The strongest aspect of Neeraj’s successful career is his silky smooth running and easy release which has constantly allowed him to trump the competition on his way to a gold at World Championships and Asian Games. On Thursday, that cleanliness in his technique was missing as he tumbled multiple times after the throw and kept picking up foul throws.

In fact, only one of his six throws was legal and good enough to win the silver.

“(For my) second throw I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run is not so good, you can’t throw very far,” Neeraj added.

Neeraj has been struggling with a groin injury since 2017 and has undergone several treatments, but the issues have never completely left him. This year he was expected to compete in at least four major events, but took part only in the Doha Diamond League and Paavo Nurmi Games, skipping the Ostrava Golden Spike and Paris Diamond League.

In javelin you build distance with practice, it’s a game of rhythm, but Neeraj hasn’t been able to touch that sweep spot this year.

“I personally felt that mindset was a very important thing in the Olympics. For the last one or two years, I’ve not been able to throw using the full runway. A javelin thrower throws 40–50 throws per session, but for me, I was only able to participate in a session in two weeks because there’s always a risk of injury during these sessions,” Neeraj revealed.

Surgery seems to be the only solution to solve the groin problem. But it wasn’t an option before the Olympics as it could have restricted him completely from taking part in Paris 2024.

“I’ve been struggling with the groin injury for some time now. Before the last World Championship, the doctors suggested surgery, but at that point, I didn’t have that time because the preparation for the Olympics takes a long time,” Neeraj said.

“I’ve been dragging it (the groin injury). I first felt it in 2017 and have undergone several treatments, but now I need to sort this out quickly as I want to fulfil the potential distance I think I have in me,” he added.

Neeraj did all that he could but you can’t control fate, especially if Nadeem was destined to become the first Pakistani athlete to win an individual Olympic gold medal, but he did all he could to dig in and fight just like champions do.

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