Ahead of the Paris Olympics 2024 campaign, Neeraj Chopra was the biggest medal hope for India. There were a lot of athletes in the Indian contingent who were confident of getting a medal and the most confident of this lot was India’s star javelin thrower, Neeraj Chopra.
Chopra had lit up the entire Tokyo Olympics 2020 campaign for India with a historic gold medal. It was India’s first gold medal at the Olympics since Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal in shooting in Beijing 2008 Olympics and therefore, it was a very special one.
But cut to Paris Olympics 2024’s javelin event. Neeraj Chopra failed to defend his title and settled for the silver medal. While this is indeed a huge achievement, many were disheartened as they were expecting Chopra to get India’s only gold medal at the Paris Olympics 2024.
In this article, we take a look at 3 reasons why Neeraj Chopra failed to defend his crown at Paris 2024:
1. Injury concerns of Neeraj Chopra
Neeraj Chopra confessed to having being suffering from an inguinal hernia, that largely affected his performance. Inguinal Hernia occurs when the intestine protrudes through the abdominal wall, in the groin area, causing massive pain.
During the runaway, a lot of the pressure is on an athlete’s lower body and that caused a dip in Neeraj’s performance in the Paris Olympics 2024. He will now be travelling to Germany to fix this issue and will not be returning to India with the rest of the Indian contingent.
2. Technique issue
Except the second attempt, all of Neeraj Chopra’s six attempts were deemed illegal as he was either close to the line or was crossing it. Only his second attempt yielded a result of 89.45m, which proved to be the second-best in the competition.
He was visibly frustrated with himself and kept showcasing that in front of the entire world after his throws.
3. Arshad Nadeem had activated his beast mode
Pakistan had sent just 7 athletes to Paris Olympics 2024 and Arshad Nadeem was their sole hope for a medal. With a country that does not have a robust sports system in place except Cricket, was shocked when Arshad Nadeem bagged the gold medal at Paris with a gigantic throw of 92.97m.
The entire world was plunged into a state of shock and happiness as the Olympic record was broken by Arshad Nadeem. Neeraj Chopra faced stiff resistance from his Pakistani counterpart and failed to match up to his prowess in the finals.
Also read: Throwback! When Neeraj Chopra Helped Arshad Nadeem Get A New Javelin
