Neeraj Chopra admits injury fears hindered his performance at Paris 2024 Olympics
Neeraj Chopra admitted that he wasn't at his best during the Paris 2024 Olympics, as fears of aggravating an injury held him back.
Despite this, the Indian javelin ace still managed to produce one of the best throws of his career at the Games, including an 89.45m throw that earned him a silver medal.
Neeraj Chopra's bid to defend his title fell short in Paris as Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem unleashed an incredible throw of 92.97m, breaking the Olympic record, to win the gold medal.
The Indian ace’s Paris 2024 campaign proved to be a mixed bag. Although Neeraj recorded the second and third best throws of his career in the final and the qualification rounds, respectively, he was mentally unable to push himself in the final because of fears of injuring his groin again.
“I feel like I could have achieved greater distance in the final because both my throws in Paris (in qualification and in the final) were my second and third-best throws. In javelin throw, it’s possible to achieve an extra 3-4m if you get the angle of release right.
“However, even though mentally I was up to the task, subconsciously my body was holding back because of fears of aggravating my groin injury. I was struggling with the run-up on the track at the Stade de France resulting in so many invalid attempts,” said Neeraj Chopra in a virtual press conference from Switzerland.
The men’s javelin throw at Paris 2024 was fiercely contested. Arshad Nadeem breached the 90m mark twice and three athletes crossed the 88m mark. All of the top five athletes in the Paris 2024 final bettered Neeraj Chopra’s Tokyo 2020 gold medal-winning throw of 87.58m.
The competition in the field, especially from Arshad, only pushed Neeraj to do better in the final. His silver medal-winning throw came just after Arshad broke the Olympic record.
“Not even for one second did I believe I couldn’t do the same,” Neeraj said. “Even Arshad had a best of 90.18m earlier which he threw at the Commonwealth Games, mine was 89.94m.
“He got the extra distance suddenly in the final and I felt like I could match that. Again, with the injury, I was unable to push myself the way I wanted to.
“My second throw was just after Arshad broke the Olympic record and I had a very positive mindset at that point. So, I ended up getting a strong throw. However, as time went on, I couldn’t manage it physically,” he added.
Even his training sessions in the buildup to the Paris Summer Games were affected by his groin issue. Neeraj, who is expected to get operated once the season ends with the Brussels Diamond League on September 14, suffered an injury scare just ahead of the Ostrava Golden Spike late in May.
“The throwing sessions are important in training. I had to limit those because of the injury. If I throw less, I do not get enough chances to work on the technique. It will take time, but once it is sorted, I’m sure the distance will go up.
“My throws moved inwards rather than in a straight line in Paris. The arm speed was fine. But the line could have made a difference of a couple of metres. So, now that I am restricted due to my groin, I will focus more on the line and the angle of release and try to perfect that,” he said.
Despite not being able to defend his Olympic title in Paris, Neeraj Chopra became only the fourth athlete from independent India to win two Olympic medals after Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker.
He feels a sense of pride after achieving the 88m mark in major international competitions consistently over the last few years. Neeraj also plans on addressing his weaknesses in training and perfecting his technique.
Questions of achieving the 90m mark, which has followed the two-time Asian Games champion over the last few years, popped up again after Arshad Nadeem’s achievement in the final.
“I have left it to God. Just work hard, prepare and give it your best, after that whatever has to happen will have. The 90m target has been talked about so much now that I have decided to let it be. I will just focus on training and trying to improve what I can in my technique,” he said before signing off.