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India’s ‘Golden Boy’ Neeraj Chopra on Thursday, August 8, missed to defend his Tokyo 2020 Olympics gold medal at the Stade de France, but stood alongside Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem and Grenada’s Anderson Peters with a silver medal around his neck on the podium. While Chopra entered the final of men’s javelin throw at Paris Olympics as the top performer in the qualification round with 89.34m throw, he bettered his season best in the finale.
During his attempts in the final on Thursday night, Neeraj Chopra could make one legal throw, where he registered 89.45m, getting to his new season best and second personal best, which was also his Olympic best. However, hours after his silver medal win, Neeraj dropped a shocking statement on his injury going into the Paris Olympics. Although, the 26-year-old has revealed his struggles with injury, he later confirmed that he was having issues with his groin injury.
“Arshad performed well and I would like to congratulate him. I’ve been competing with him since 2016, and this is the first time he won while competing together,” Neeraj Chopra began after his silver medal victory at Stade de France. “Despite the injury, I am pushing myself hard. The throw was good, but I still have a lot left in me, and I need to stay fit to achieve it,” he further added.
“I haven’t achieved a 90-meter throw yet, but during the second attempt, I felt that today might be the day. I have faith in myself, and I know I’ll reach that milestone someday. Holding your flag and winning a medal for your country is an incredible feeling,” he continued. Chopra then went on to speak of his injuries over the last two to three years adding, “The last two or three years were not so good for me. I’m always injured. I’m training, I’m not doing a lot of throws because of my groin (injury) I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique.”
Watch Neeraj Chopra speak about his injury concerns going into the Paris Olympics 2024:
Moreover, it is to be noted that Neeraj slipped towards the end of one of his throws and it was later ruled invalid as he crossed the white-line mark.
Neeraj Chopra’s parents react on son’s silver medal win at Paris 2024 Olympics
Neeraj Chopra’s parents, Satish Kumar (father) and Saroj Devi (mother) hailed son’s efforts and expressed their happiness on his silver medal win. On being asked if Neeraj was under pressure after Arshad Nadeem’s Olympic record breaking throw, his father, Satish Kumar said, “You cannot call that pressure. Everyone has his day. Today's day was lucky for Arshad. He fought well. 12 countries were competing, and Pakistan was the best today. We have won back-to-back medals in Olympics, it is a great thing. We are giving proper fight to other countries. As far as pressure is concerned, I think the groin injury affected his performance.”
"Neeraj fought form his country. He brought home silver. Till now we were winning bronze, he brought home silver from Paris. We should all be happy. May be his groin injury hampered him,” he further added.
On the other hand, Neeraj Chopra’s mother, Saroj Devi also hailed his efforts and expressed happiness on her son getting a silver medal. “We are very happy with the silver, the one who got gold is also our child and the one who got silver is also our child… all are athletes, all work hard,” she said.
It is to be noted that with his silver medal win, Neeraj became the third Indian to win back to back individual Olympic medals, whereas he became the first Indian to win back-to-back medals in track and field events at Olympics.
