India at Paris Olympics 2024: Know your athlete – Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra, India's first field athlete to secure a gold medal at the Olympics, will start as favourite to add another gold in the men's javelin throw final event at the Paris Olympics 2024. On August 7, 2021, Neeraj had already made history by clinching India’s first-ever gold medal in athletics at the Tokyo Olympics. Born into a farming family in Khandra village, Haryana, the 26-year-old achieved this feat with a winning throw of 87.58m.

Neeraj Chopra could become India's first individual athlete to win back to back gold medals at the Olympics.(PTI)

A graduate of Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College in Chandigarh, Neeraj battled childhood obesity, which prompted his family to encourage him to take up sports. Eventually, he chose javelin throw and began training at the Shivaji Stadium in Panipat. After a year of training, he joined the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula at the age of 13, where his coach Naseem Ahmad guided him in long-distance running alongside javelin throw.