(I know the year of the article should be 2025. But this is because of an ongoing bug in the theme. Tracking Github Issue here).

I admire all sportsmen in general, athletes a bit more & I love Neeraj Chopra the most. Excelling in sports is one of the hardest feats, especially in India. I mean he is literally the most successful individual Indian Olympian ever. And that too in a sport where we had no past success, or great players to take inspiration from, or the infrastructure. Even crossing 80 metres was an elusive dream in Indian Javelin, till not so long ago. These reasons make Neeraj admirable, but my reasons to love him go beyond the metres and the medals.

Naturally, we relate more with people who have a similar background as us. Neeraj is one such person for me. Same age, from a village farming family. He feels like one of us - a boy from a farming background with a dream of excelling in athletics. This is a dream, I am sure, that literally every boy of our region carries. Most (like me) couldn’t do it, for various reasons. So, when we see Neeraj doing it, killing it in ‘Athletics’, it feels so heartening. Feels like a personal win. Neeraj’s village, my village and Delhi form a nice ‘V’ shape and our villages are almost parallel to each other.

Village Map

In the elite & “educated” circles of India, fluency in English often determines worthiness. They will deride you and gate keep stuff from you at all the possible points. We all have faced it growing up. This leads to low confidence in kids growing up. But Neeraj is not one of these. He has no vanity, no fakeness. He gives all his Indian interviews in Hindi (Haryanvi) and owns it completely. There have been various occasions (interviews/award shows) where he clearly said that he is more comfortable in answering in Hindi. See the ‘Indian Sports Honor’ award ceremony. Also see this short clip too. This is how I feel too. I love my mother tongue & I strongly feel that language is not a parameter to judge someone’s ability or intelligence. I guess this topic triggers me as people from my background get judged a lot on this parameter.

As any person of high integrity should, Neeraj never shies away from saying what he feels is the “right thing”. When anyone gains fame in India, the first thing they lose is their spine. Especially in the recent government regimes. “Celebrities” were quite vocal before the current regime in raising the voices of a common man. Now you won’t see a single celeb doing it. I don’t know what their reason is. But whatever it is, it isn’t true for Neeraj. Even on topics which go against the ruling party or the people in power, Neeraj always speaks out, without fear, especially for those whose voices aren’t heard in our country. Be it the ‘Wrestlers protest’ (tweet & tweet) against the ruling party’s MP, or be it the ‘Farmers protest’.

Not even once, he has said any bad thing about his rivals like Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem. He could’ve very well got the brownie points (& all associated benefits) from the jingoistic folks. But Neeraj refuses to be a ‘putla’ of the regime. I think a part of it comes from the upbring too. In the Paris Olympics Neeraj got the silver and Arshad got the gold. Post Olympics, some of the Indian journalists, in search of some “masala” , reached out to Neeraj’s mother. All she said was, “Gold jiska aaya, wo bhi hamara hi ladka hai. Sab mehnat karke jaa rahe hai.”

Before the Tokyo Olympics, when Johannes Vetter was in the form of his life, Vetter made a statement, “If he (Neeraj) is healthy and if he is in the right shape, especially in his technique, he can throw far. But he has to fight with me. I am looking to throw over 90m in Tokyo, so it will be tough for him to beat me”. Neeraj won the gold later on, as we all know. Vetter, unfortunately, could not even make it to the top 8. This could’ve been a perfect “give it back” moment for Neeraj, if he wanted to. But he didn’t. That’s not our Neeraj. In an interview, answering the same question, Neeraj replied, “As an athlete, mere man me kabhi nahi aaya ki me is baat ka muh-tod jawab du. Tokyo Olympics me wo mera din tha. Mere liye wo din acha raha lekin iska ye matlab nahi hai ki me unko muh-tod jawab du. Mere muh se wo cheez bolna disrespect lagta unke liye”.
He goes on to say, “Balki mujhe to unke liye bahut ajeeb feel ho raha tha as an athlete. Mene unke mann ki baat samajhne ki koshish ki. Agar me unki jagah hota, olympics me top 8 se bahar hote, to unke upar kya beet rahi hogi. Mere to mann me tha ki me ek baar unko jaake hug karu and bolu ki koi baat nahi”.

Neeraj’s story is more than just records and medals. It is a testament to the power of hard work, dreams, and unwavering self belief. What sets him apart isn’t just his domination in Javelin, but the humility, resilience and integrity with which he carries himself. He embodies what it means to be a champion, both on and off the field.

References

There are some interviews online if you want to hear & see more of Neeraj. Linking some of them here