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Post Vinesh Phogat and Mirabai Chanu’s exit from the Paris Olympics 2024, all eyes were on the Tokyo gold winner Neeraj Chopra, hopeful for a medal, and the star athlete didn’t disappoint. With a stellar throw, in fact, the second best in his career, Neeraj Chopra bagged the silver medal at the men’s javelin throw at the Paris Olympics 2024. While gold went to Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who smashed it out of the park with his record-breaking throw at 92.97m, Neeraj Chopra, who has been recovering from injuries, and seemed to not be in the best shape, won silver, and hearts everywhere.
While he happens to be the reigning world champion, Neeraj Chopra was said to have been dealing with issues with his adductor muscles for 2 odd years now, and as he geared up for the 2024 Paris Olympics, one could only hope that he’d be able to recreate the magic that he did in 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Neeraj however, could only manage one throw out of six attempts, good enough to bag the silver medal, but with Arshad’s gold-fetching, record-shattering throw, that’s the most it could do.
The two athletes share a good rapport, and while determined to do better at the next Olympics, Neeraj Chopra expressed that he was happy for Nadeem, who has worked just as hard if not more to be able to represent Pakistan at the Olympics, bringing home his country’s first medal since Barcelona Olympics 1992. So did the mothers of both the athletes, as Neeraj Chopra’s mother was quoted by PTI, “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.” The sentiment was echoed across the border too with Arshad Nadeem’s mother telling Indyurdu “Neeraj Chopra is like a son to me. I prayed for him too”.