Everyone knows Neeraj Chopra. Then again, no one really does.
How can anyone in a nation starved for genuine sporting heroes and success on the biggest stages know a man who, at 25, has won everything there is on offer? Who made track and field fashionable among Indians and has single-handedly changed the perception of Indians not being good enough in the most global of sports? Who is an outlier as much in his rootedness despite all his achievements as in his continued quest to be better than himself even with everything he has won?
Last year, after winning silver at the 2022 edition of the World Championships, he was asked what was left and he had mentioned ‘gold at the worlds, maybe’. On Sunday night – early hours of Monday in India with the time difference – a nation stayed awake to watch him tick that one remaining box and was rewarded with the familiar roar, the raised finger to signal the big prize was his and the genial smile.
