Neeraj Chopra: Why legacy of ‘Golden Boy’ remains unscathed despite second-best display in Paris

New Delhi: The massive expectations from Neeraj Chopra were all the more evident after the men’s javelin final at Stade de France on Thursday. That in a campaign where bronze medals triggered huge celebrations, Neeraj’s silver was seen as a defeat says it all about his impact on Indian sports. Like Virat Kohli in cricket, every missed opportunity by Neeraj is deciphered as a failure, albeit the second spot on the Paris podium is not a failure by any means.

Neeraj entered the men’s javelin event at Paris Olympics as a hot favourite. The world number two cemented his tag with a monster 89.34m throw on his very first attempt. The reigning Olympic champion laid down the marker by obliterating the rest of the qualification field with the second-best throw of his career.

The sensational performance in the qualification raised the hopes of a second successive gold even higher. The victory seemed inevitable for the man with the golden arm.

Neeraj second-best despite second-best throw of his career

The weight of expectations increased further as India rested hopes on Neeraj to bring joy to an otherwise dismal campaign, especially after the gloom in the aftermath of Vinesh Phogat’s heartbreaking disqualification from the Olympic final and the subsequent retirement.

His throw of 89.45 on his second attempt in the finals was better than the one that annihilated the field in the qualifiers. On another day, Neeraj would have comfortably claimed the gold. Remember, his gold-winning throw at the Tokyo 2020 was 87.58m, much inferior to the silver-winning throw at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

It was not his day. It’s as simple as that. Despite hurling the second-best throw of his career, Neeraj finished second-best behind Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem.

Before Paris, Arshad trailed Neeraj 0-9 in the head-to-head record, having never beaten his Indian rival in their eight-year-long rivalry.

Arshad chose the biggest stage to break the losing streak and he broke it in style.

The Pakistani athlete claimed his country’s first individual gold with an Olympic record throw of 92.97m. The gigantic throw, which was hurled in the second round, stunned the rest of the field including Neeraj, who responded with an 89.45m throw but fouled on the rest of the attempts.

Neeraj’s legacy remains unscathed

At 26, Neeraj has won everything – Asian Games gold, World Championship gold, Commonwealth gold and Olympic gold to name a few – there is to win.

The gold at the Paris Games would indeed have taken his achievements to immeasurable heights but the fact that despite having a poor day at the office, Neeraj needed just one legitimate throw to claim the silver medal.

Let’s also not forget that by claiming silver, Neeraj became the first track and field athlete to win two successive medals and joined the elite club of PV Sindhu, Manu Bhaker and Norman Pritchard to claim two Olympic medals.

The memories of Abhinav Bindra missing the podium finish in London after claiming India’s first individual Olympics gold at the Beijing Games are still fresh. On the contrary, Neeraj maintained his top billing and secured successive podium finishes.

At 26, Neeraj has already achieved everything to create a legacy that will be hard to match and with the age still on his side, there is a lot more success in the store for India’s ‘Golden Boy’.

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 Paris 2024 Olympics: Despite hurling the second-best throw of his career, Neeraj Chopra finished second-best behind Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem.  Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today