Neeraj Chopra – Career, Medal List, Records and Personal Achievements

Who is Neeraj Chopra? – The Tokyo Olympic 2020 gold medal winner Neeraj Chopra becomes the first person to bag the gold for India nearly after a decade.

Eventually, Neeraj Chopra becomes the first player for India to bag the gold in Javelin throw which is a Track and field category in Olympics.

Neeraj Chopra Biography

Neeraj Chopra Family

• Neeraj’s father Satish Kumar is a farmer in a tiny village of Khandra in Panipat, Haryana.
• His mother, Saroj Devi, is a housewife and he has two sisters.
• Neeraj developed an interest in Javelin at the tender age of 11 after keeping an eye on Jaiveer (Jai Choudhary) who used to practice at the Panipat Stadium. Jaiveer is a javelin athlete who represented Haryana.
• After training under Choudhary for a year, the 13-year-old Chopra was admitted to the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, four hours from his home.
• In 2014, Neeraj bought his first Javelin worth Rs 7000. Later at the international level, he purchased a javelin worth Rs 1 lakh in the national camp he attended.

Neeraj Chopra Career

• Neeraj weighs 80 kg when he was only 11, Neeraj’s introduction to javelin happened by chance during his visits to the Panipat Stadium in his bid to lose weight.
• Observing Chopra’s ability to achieve a 40-meter throw without training and impressed by his drive, Choudhary became his first coach.
• After training under Choudhary for a year, the 13-year-old Chopra was admitted to the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex in Panchkula, four hours from his home.
• The sports complex was then one of only two facilities in the state of Haryana with a synthetic runway.
• There, he trained under coach Naseem Ahmad, who made him train in long-distance running along with the javelin throw.
• Initially while at Tau Devi, he typically achieved throws of around 55 meters.

• He soon increased his range and won the 2012 junior nationals in Lucknow by achieving a new national record throw of 68.40 meters.
• The next year, he entered his first international competition, the World Youth Championships in Ukraine.
• He achieved his first throw of over 70 meters at the 2014 senior nationals, following this up with a world record throw in the junior category of 81.04 meters in the 2015 All India Inter-University Athletics Meet; this was his first throw of over 80 meters.
• Chopra won a gold medal in the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland and set a world junior record of 86.48 m.

• He however failed to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics as the cut-off date had been 11 July, the week before the U20 championships.
• Impressed with Chopra’s performance at the South Asian Games and his future potential, the Indian Army offered him a direct appointment as a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Rajputana Rifles with the rank of Naib Subedar, a rank typically not immediately granted to athletes, who are usually recruited as non-commissioned officers (NCO).

Neeraj Chopra Medal 

Gold

• 2016- South Asian Games in Guwahati, India
• 2016 – World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland
• 2017 – Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar, India
• 2018 – Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia
• 2018 – Sotteville Athletics Meet in Sotteville-lés-Rouen, France
• 2018 – Savo Games in Lapinlahti, Finland
• 2018 – Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia
• 2021 – Tokyo Olympics 2020

Also read: Olympics Medal Table 2020 / 2021 | Ranking By Country

Silver

• 2016 – Asian Junior Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• 2017 – Asian Grand Prix Series in Jinhua, China
• 2017 – Asian Grand Prix Series in Jiaxing, China
• 2018 – Offenburg Speenvurf Meeting in Offenburg, Germany
• 2024 – Paris Olympics 2024

CHECK: Paris Olympics 2024 Medal Tally | Ranking By Country

Bronze

• 2017 – Asian Grand Prix Series in Taipei, Taiwan

Neeraj Chopra Records

• 2018 – National Record of 88.06m mark at the Asian Games
• 2021 – National record of 88.07m mark at the Indian Grand Prix

Neeraj Chopra Awards

• Arjuna Award – 2018
• Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) – 2020 Republic Day honours
• Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award – 2021 (highest sporting honour of India)
• Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) – 2022 Republic Day honours
• Padma Shri (fourth highest civilian honour) – 2022 Republic Day honours

Prize Amount for Neeraj Chopra on Winning Gold Medal

Neeraj Chopra starts to receive wishes and prizes from various organizations after winning the gold for India in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Following are the list of cash prize amounts received by Neeraj Chopra:

• ₹75 lakhs (US$110,000) from the Government of India.
• ₹6 crores (US$840,000) from the Government of Haryana, a Class-I state government appointment, and a plot of land for an athletics centre.
• ₹2 crores (US$280,000) from BYJU’S
• ₹2 crores (US$280,000) from the Government of Punjab
• ₹1 crore (US$140,000) from the Government of Manipur
• ₹1 crore (US$140,000) from the Board of Control for Cricket in India
• ₹1 crore (US$140,000) from Chennai Super Kings and a personalized jersey
• ₹25 lakhs (US$35,000) from the Elan realty group, Gurugram
• ₹75 lakhs (US$110,000) from the Indian Olympic Association