Neeraj Chopra Opens Up About Injury Struggles After Losing to Arshad Nadeem at Paris Olympics

Neeraj Chopra Opens Up About Injury Struggles: Although Neeraj Chopra currently falls in the category of the best javelin throwers in the world, the young Indian athlete is believed to have been born to dominate even before his youth. But the question is whether he will ever breach the 90m mark in official competitions.

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He made the whole country hero by winning the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Besides a gold and silver at the World Championships, he then went to Paris 2024 to defend his title without much fuss. During qualification at Paris, he registered a season best at 89.34m in his first throw to top the table and directly enter the finals. There, he got 89.45m in his second attempt, which was the only legal throw. This marks him second with his arch-rival from Pakistan, as Arshad Nadeem, got gold after a world-record throw of 92.97m.

The 27-year-old then was interrogated in a talk with Lallantop to explain if his Tokyo heroics create added pressure as he gears for Paris 2024. He said, “Normally I don’t put pressure on myself to win gold. Normally when I play, I compete like a new athlete. I don’t think much about how I performed in the previous Olympics, how my throw was. I pay more attention to what I am going to do today. That’s where my main focus is. The body condition should be good, both mentally and physically, then only you will get a big throw.”

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Neeraj Chopra: Injury Struggles

In fact, Neeraj spoke about injury problems that did not let him defend his title in Paris and also brought defeat against Nadeem in the final. “I am facing some issues. I am dealing with a groin injury for quite sometime. So that doesn’t let me push myself in training. Since 2018, I have been feeling that I can get a very big throw and I know that. The pain I am bearing, I realize how much it has stalled my career. Otherwise talking about consistency, I have thrown 88m, 89m normally. I remain consistent. I feel I should have registered a bigger throw than these by now. But injury is such a thing, which stops your progress.”

“To remedy it, I will need to do surgery. I have taken that decision yet because groin is very tricky. It is risky, it would be hard to make a comeback. Now I am trying to strengthen it,” he added.

Fans will be hoping for Neeraj to finally break the elusive 90m barrier heading into the new season, a record which would have thrust him among the greatest ever in the game.

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