Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra is an Indian Javelin Thrower born on 24th December 1997. He hails from Khandra Village of Haryana’s Panipat district. Neeraj has been representing India internationally since 2013 and won a gold medal in Tokyo Olympics.

Neeraj Chopra - Early Life, Family & Background

Neeraj Chopra was born to Satish Kumar and his wife. He comes from a humble family background residing in Khandra village of Panipat district. His father is a farmer and his mother is a housewife. He has two sisters.

Neeraj’s interest in javelin throw happened by chance when he saw Jaiveer Choudhary practicing Javelin Throw at the Panipat stadium. He would regularly visit Panipat stadium to work on his fitness and lose weight as he was fat and chubby. Little did he know about the javelin throw until he tried his hands on the sport. His talent was spotted by the seniors at the stadium and inspired to take up the sport seriously.

Neeraj had faced difficulty in travelling from his home to the stadium due to lack of public transport in his village, instead, he would take lifts from the passing vehicles for a 16-17 kilometers journey to reach the training ground. He later shifted his base to the Athletics Nursery at the Taluka Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula because of the lack of proper infrastructure in the Panipat Stadium.

In 2016, he joined the Indian Army and is currently serving as Junior Commissioned Officer with the rank of Naib Subedar. Neeraj is a graduate of DAV College in Chandigarh, Punjab.

Neeraj Chopra Biography

Neeraj Chopra’s career instantly took off after he made his debut in the domestic circuit at the 2012 National Junior Athletics Competitions and won his first Gold medal with a record throw of 68.46 meters. With this achievement, he joined the national camp for better training and exposure.

Neeraj’s international career breakthrough came in 2016 when he won his first international Gold medal at the South Asian Games in Guwahati. In 2017, he won 2 Silver medals and a Bronze medal at the Asian Grand Prix Series held in 3 different cities, Jinhua, Jiaxing in China, and Taipei in Taiwan. Later that year, he made his IAAF Diamond League debut and finished 7th with a throw of 83.80 meters.

In 2018, he won the Gold medal at the Sotteville Athletics meet in France, followed by another Gold medal at the Savo Games in Lapinlahti, Finland.

In March 2021, Neeraj shattered his national record by throwing 88.07m at the Indian Grand Prix Meet in Patiala.

Neeraj Chopra Achievements

Neeraj Chopra made his international debut for India at the 2013 World Youth Championships, where he finished 19th in the qualification round held at Donetsk in Ukraine. At the 2015 Asian Championships, he finished 9th in the final of the javelin throw event in Wuhan, China.

In 2016, he won a Silver medal in the javelin throw at the Asian Junior Championships. Later that year, Neeraj caught the limelight when he set the world junior record by throwing 86.48m and clinched the Gold medal at the World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

At the 2017 Asian Championships, he won the Gold medal by throwing 85.23m at Bhubaneshwar in Odisha. In the same year, he competed at the World Athletics Championships in London but failed to win any medals as he finished 15th in the qualification round.

In 2018, Neeraj clinched the Gold medal at the Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast in Australia and thus became the first Indian javelin thrower to accomplish the feat at the Commonwealth Games. At the 2018 Asian Games, he broke his own national record of 86.48m by throwing 88.06m and won the Gold medal in the javelin throw in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In January 2020, Neeraj Chopra booked his Olympics berth in Javelin Throw at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after he threw 87.86m at the Athletics Central North East held in Potchefstroom, South Africa. This will be his debut Olympics after he missed out on the chance of representing India at the 2016 Rio Olympics.