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'I kept losing from 2017 to 2021': Neeraj Chopra plays down invincibility tag, talks Olympic title defence at HTLS 2023
Neeraj revealed that while defending Olympic crown will be one of his biggest achievement ever, the challenge in the build-up to the event will be to remain fit
Neeraj Chopra is the new superstar of Indian sports. He had long become a household name after a historic Olympic gold medal haul in Tokyo in 2021, but attained this status through his medal-winning run in 13 events over the next two years which included a stunning top-of-the-podium finish at the Asian Games in Hangzhou exactly a month back. However, Neeraj humbly played down the invincible tag on Day 4 of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Friday while opening up on the pressure of defending the Olympic crown in Paris next year.
In 2023, Neeraj participated in seven events and finished atop in five of those and second the remaining two, one of which was failing to hold on to his Diamond League title in Eugene after finishing second. In the previous year, he finished first in three of the six events he participated and second in the remaining three.
When asked if the glorious run since 2022 has made him feel unbeatable at world stage, the reigning Olympic winner said that it was through the defeats in the early phase of his international career that the champion in him emerged. Neeraj also reckoned that often putting the best performance forward depends on luck as well as he explained the norms of making it through from the qualifiers to gaining a medal in the discipline at a major event.
"It is through defeats that I have reached this stage. In 2017 I had started competing in international events in Diamond League, so since 2017 till 2021, I kept losing. It was in 2022 Diamond League when I first got a position in the podium. So the winning didn't start all of a sudden. In 2019 I couldn't play the entire season because of an injury, then there was Covid and finally we had the Olympics in 2021. So even that level started improving through the years and so did my belief. So this winning run hasn't affected me because I have seen defeats and I had accepted that," Neeraj told Ashish Magotra, the National Sports Editor of Hindustan Times.
Given the benchmarks Neeraj has set for himself at the 1.5 billion people of India, anything less than a gold feels a bit of a letdown, which is why when the gold standard finished second, struggling in the windy conditions at the Hayward Field, it took a while to sink in. The fact that he took silver completely washed away from memory that his best throw of 85.71m came in his final attempt. Moreover, it's worth noting that Neeraj has consistently played down the pressure of hitting the 90m mark.
"Because in sports you never know what happens on what day and even if you give you best, another athlete might have a better day. There are a lot of things that are actually not in our hands. Like when we go for competitions, 30-35 athletes are part of the competition. There is first a qualification round, of which 12 are picked. Then four get eliminated after three attempts and finally only three players win the medal. So, I feel happy that things have been going my way in the last two years," said India's javelin champion.
Neeraj added that while defending his Olympic crown in Paris will be one of his biggest achievements ever, the challenge during the build-up to the event will be to remain fit and injury free.
"Whenever I think about Paris Olympics, the sole thought is to give my best with all the learnings that I have gained through the years and experience. So it will be a big thing for me to defend the title. I am currently in that zone, I have that age so if I can manage to keep myself fit because injury is the biggest challenge," he said.
