Double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra opened up about how an injury early in his career almost ended his journey of Javelin before it even began.
Talking in a fireside chat with Students of language learning app Duolingo, Neeraj revealed that he injured his wrist early in his career. However, the injury wasn’t during training but while playing around on a basketball court.
“I suffered an injury very early in my career. It was not during my training but while I was doing some mischeif. So, I was holding the basketball ring while jumping and fell suddenly. My wrist was fractured, and it had to be in plaster for a long time. It was the same hand that I used to throw the javelin,” he said.
The doctors said that the injury was complicated and he might not be able to throw again jeopardising his career. “I felt that I won’t be able to throw againas doctors said that it is a complicated injury,” said Neeraj.
However, the dream of playing for India and representing the country at a global stage kept the hunger alive inside Neeraj. “It was thought but the dream of playing for India kept me going.As soon as I started feeling better, I knew I had to do it again. It was my dream that kept my mindset strong,” he said.
Neeraj propelled to global fame when he broke the U20 Javelin World Record with a 86.43m at the 2016 U20 World Championships. After dominating at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2018, Neeraj cemented his place as one of the greatest India athletes after winning the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.
He became the second Indian to win the Olympic individual gold after Abhinav Bindra. He followed it up with World Championships silver medal in 2022, World title in 2023, multiple Diamond League titles and another medal at 2024 Paris Olympics.
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