Despite two Olympic medals, Neeraj Chopra’s quest for ‘better throw’ continues… ‘Until I get that, shanti nahi mil paegi’ | Sport-others News

INDIA’S GREATEST living Olympian is madly in love with what he does. And it is giving him nothing but grief.You feel it in his words and the long pauses. You hear the pain in his voice and can see a lump in the throat.
“Medal alag cheez hai (Medal is one thing),” says Neeraj Chopra, the javelin throw silver medall. “But I feel there is a better throw left in me. Until I get that, shanti nahi mil paegi (I won’t be at peace).”
It isn’t regret, Chopra is quick to emphasise. When he started, he didn’t even dream of being at the Olympics. He didn’t have an athlete’s physique or the background. “Pata nahi kaise aa gaye yahan tak (I don’t know how I reached this far),” he smiles. “Journey sahi rahi hai. Whatever medals were there to win, I have won them God’s grace.”
Less than an hour ago, Chopra had done what no Indian has in an individual event at the Olympics: follow up a gold medal with a silver. He has the same set of medals from the World Championships. He has conquered the Asian and Commonwealth Games and the Diamond Leagues. Between winning the Tokyo gold and Paris silver, Chopra competed in 18 international competitions. In each of them, he’s been on the podium.
The 26-year-old man standing on the other side of a steel barricade in the basement of Stade de France isn’t here to talk about the medals either. He is on the quest for the perfect throw. But the harder he chases it, the farther it’s going from him.
“Mere andar hai (I have it in me).” A pause. “Sach mein (Really),” he inss, as if no one believed the multiple Olympic and World medall. “Even though I have not crossed 90m… I thought I’d do it tonight. I had the belief…” Another pause. “(But) I will do it.”
“I am pushing myself right now despite the current state of my body,” Chopra adds. “I haven’t been able to throw from the full runway. Maximum (Most) athletes will have 40-50 throws in one session. Mera kya pata… maybe in two or three weeks, I’ll have one session. I have the fear of getting injured.”
At this point, he chokes up a little. “Bas ji,” Chopra exhales. “Jab tak throw nahi hogi, jab tak javelin ke saath kaam nahi hoga, mushkil hai javelin ko udana. (Till the time I can’t throw, can’t work with the javelin, it’ll be tough to make it fly.)”
Chopra gets emotional. But these aren’t the emotions most expected. This is an athlete who, just a while ago, made the spear travel 89.45m — his best throw of the season; the second-best in an Olympic final where the quality was so high that the dances of the top six finishers were better than Chopra’s gold-medal winning throw in Tokyo.Chopra, though, isn’t satisfied.
A groin injury scuttled all his plans and ambitions. It’s been a recurring problem, one that first surfaced in 2017, got treated multiple times but it kept on bothering him. Last year, a doctor advised Chopra to undergo surgery. That, however, would have severely impacted his medal hopes here, not knowing how long it’d take him to recover.
The injury — and the constant fear of aggravating it — hasn’t allowed Chopra to explore his full range. It’s slowed down his run-up, Chopra admits. “If you see my previous competition, like 2018, I was really fast on the runway,” he says.
How Neeraj Chopra’s injury impacted his technique
Consequently, it has impacted his overall technique. “Right now, I am forcing myself. Zabardasti kheench leta hoon.” As a domino effect, the block leg and other techniques desert him in key moments. He relies on his biggest strength — the arm.
“I trust my hand. If the rest of my body doesn’t work, jhatka toh maar hi loonga (I can execute the whiplash action). But when blocking leg and other technical things don’t fall in place, until that point it is very tough to throw. Until the legs don’t support; it’s very tough to rely just on the upper body for full power. Everything goes to waste if the legs don’t work well. This is an injury-prone sport, unnatural for the body.”
Chopra points to bronze winner Anderson Peters of Grenada. “Even he has something in his left thigh.” Then, he turns to gold medall Arshad Nadeem. “Aapko bhi hai? (You also, brother?)” Nadeem nods his head sideways. Chopra smiles. “Good for Arshad that he doesn’t have any.”
A ripple of laughter lightens the mood in the room. And Chopra keeps it like that even as he continues to lay bare his raw emotions.
In the build-up to the Paris Olympics, he wanted to compete in more tournaments. But he had to make sure the groin wasn’t overworked, else there was a risk that the injury would flare up close to the Olympics.
“I don’t like it at all to withdraw from competitions. Even if I throw less dances… I play a lot of competitions to save myself from the embarrassment of saying no to the organisers. I think about this a lot, if I withdraw after submitting my entry, then they will say he keeps on doing it.”
He adds: “When I am not competing, when I withdraw, I feel very bad. Then I have to tell my team to make a nice message: ‘Sorry ji. I won’t be able to play.’ Khelna bohot badi cheez hai ji. (It is very important to keep playing). No matter what the performances will be.”
One thing he is satisfied with is how well he and his team managed his injury — they planned it perfectly to ensure he could compete in Paris. His throws, however, could have been better, Chopra says.
When he was competing in Thursday’s final, Chopra said 60-70 per cent of his focus was on the groin which severely impacted the quality of the throws. “Only one was good and all other throws were foul. (That was) because in my mind, I was more focussed on my groin.”
Neeraj Chopra to undergo surgery for groin injury?
A silver pocketed under most trying circumstances, Chopra says he will now have to take a big decision: sit with his team, seek a “good doctor’s” appointment, and get surgery done if it means he’ll be able to go the full dance with his throw.
“We will have to make a big decision. I feel there is a better throw left in me. And I will do it. But I have won a medal for my country so that’s a big deal too.”
He ends with a question: “Aap khush ho? (Are you happy?)”