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The Paris Olympics is just a few months away and Neeraj Chopra, the ‘Golden Boy’ of Indian athletics, has carefully charted his training regime to remain focused on creating more history.
After spending a few weeks training in South Africa, he flew to Switzerland for a little downtime and then returned for a month-long regime to the African nation. Neeraj will then head to Turkey to continue his training and kickstart his season in April, taking part in a select few competitions to get into shape for the Paris Games slated to be held from July 11 this year.
At 26, Neeraj has already etched his name in the annals of Indian sports history. He’s won gold in all major javelin competitions including at the Olympics, World Athletics Championships, Asiad, CWG, Diamond League and more.
For his unprecedented success, Neeraj was bestowed with Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award and after a productive 2023, he’s now pushing himself harder to create more history.
In a conversation, facilitated by Switzerland Tourism, Neeraj opened up on what drove him towards javelin, his upcoming challenges and how he keeps himself motivated after having achieved almost everything that his sport can offer.
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Neeraj, you’ve won almost every major javelin throw event. You will be part of the Paris Games as the defending champion in a few months. In Tokyo, a medal was expected from you but you defied those to win gold. This time it’s expected you will defend your title. Has it become easier to deal with such hopes and anticipations?
It’s not that I won gold in every competition that I’ve been part of. This happened last year too, I was second in the Diamond League. It’s nice that I have been able to do it in most of the events. Yeah, thinking about the competitions I have won brings up nice memories. There are great competitors all around, they are all working hard and anyone can win at any stage. Tokyo Olympics was a different prospect. I was there for the first time. There were expectations. This time, expectations will only be higher because I have to defend the title. So I am working towards that and the progress has been nice.
Neeraj, there’s a story that as a kid you were overweight and then your uncle took you to the gym. Is that what drove you towards javelin throw?
There’s not a lot to this story. Yeah, I was a little overweight back then (when 13), so had to work on my fitness a bit. We are all a little filmy and it makes for a nice story – I was fat, somebody inspired me and all of a sudden I turned to the gym. There’s nothing like that. Yeah, but I wanted to train, liked playing sports. Once I started with my fitness routines, I saw other athletes train and gradually started throwing javelin. It wasn’t something that I had planned. I tried a lot of sports and saw a few javelin throwers, I liked it and so it began.
Yeah, there were a few people who used to (talk about my weight) but it didn’t matter but my taking to javelin wasn’t because of that. It was destiny.
What is your routine during competitions? Do follow any superstition?
Nothing like that (no superstitions). During the competition, I try to sleep well, keep my mind relaxed, aim is to direct all the focus on the competition. Resting, having good food, positive mindset. The real work has already been done in the training before. The performances are all dependent on the quality of training.
While training, maintaining a 100 per cent focus is important. Even when I am not training, like now, I have come to Switzerland for a short vacation. My uncle is here. I had trained for five weeks so taking some time off right now to relax my mind. I am enjoying my time here but yeah if there’s scope to train in the morning, I try to give 1-1.5 hours to it. Right now, I want to relax a bit. The grind will resume soon.
You are someone who doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind, without fearing how it can be misconstrued in this age of social media. Be it defending Nadeem Ashraf after the ‘tampering’ claim or your role in helping Kishore Jena get a visa for the world championships last year. Is this something that comes naturally to you?
Yeah, you must speak on the issues you are aware of. This is the time of social media but I do stay away from it while training. It’s strange that the more followers you have, the bigger your stature. You will find someone who has won plenty of Olympic medals having fewer followers than someone who is just a national-level athlete. So we cannot judge someone’s stature based on their social media following. That world is quite different. What’s wrong should be called out. Yeah, I’m not afraid to speak about anything related to sports though.
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You are holidaying in Switzerland. How has been your experience?
This isn’t my first time being here. I have been here several times; last I was here in 2022. Back then there was a lot of greenery here. This time it’s all white, with plenty of snow. I had planned to come here. I had to be in Munich to visit a doctor. At the same time, I had this plan chalked out with Switzerland Tourism. So we decided to come here along with friends and family to spend some time. I am having fun, been exploring mountains, and villages. This is the first time I’ve seen so much snowfall in my life. I was in Lucerne for some time. Saw snowfall, attended their famous Lilu Light Festival, and had a good time.
Visit to Jungfraujoch mountain has been a good memory. And then there’s my javelin on display at The Olympic Museum in Lausanne (gold medal-winning). It’s an honour that people from around the world will see that. I would like to thank Switzerland Tourism for giving me the opportunity to visit here.
Can you tell us about your schedule in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics?
I was in South Africa for five weeks and came here (Switzerland) for a week. I will return for a month-long training schedule. Then I will head to Turkey for further training. I will start my season around April. We will see the events I can take part in later. The focus is on the Paris Olympics. Before that, the aim is to take part in a few tournaments.
You battled through the pain last year but managed it well and won medals too…
This time, the moment I started feeling pain, I quickly had a word with physio. We decided to skip a few events to keep myself fully fit for the world championships. I used that time to rehab. It was important to keep a positive mindset during that phase. I had already taken part in an event in Doha and this happened later. So, I stayed positive and kept working on recovery. The year was pretty good.
This one question might be a little annoying. Are you still hopeful of breaching the 90m mark?
Even last year, I thought I would breach the mark. A lot of things have to fall in place though – weather, direction of wind. Ho jayega, aisi koi dikkat nahi hai (It will happen).
Obviously, injuries do hamper you in events, preventing to from giving your 100 per cent. My main objective is to take part in competitions and win gold. If I do breach the milestone, it will be good but I am happy with the results. Of course, I am working to improve the distance. It will happen.
You met with tennis legend Roger Federer in Switzerland. How was meeting a fellow legend?
Yeah, we spoke about normal things. He played high-quality tennis for such a long period so I asked about that. He talked about keeping a positive mind, keep taking part in competitions. We talked about the weather. He told me about his skiing trip and how much he enjoyed that. Till the time, he was playing tennis, he used to stay away from it but finally, he’s getting to ski now. It was a nice experience interacting with him. He’s a good human being.
A message to your younger self…
It’s very important that whatever you like, give your 100 per cent to it. When I was 13, I did that and it’s very important for everyone. Not to my younger self but to kids today, I would like to tell them that it takes time to reach a certain level but you must keep on finding ways to improve and keep getting better. Keep up the hard work. You will definitely reach your goals in some time.
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