Neeraj Chopra

Neeraj Chopra (born 24 December 1997) is an Indian javelin thrower. He has won gold medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games, Asian Championships and Asian Games. Chopra has won the Diamond League once. He won the Olympic gold medal in 2020 and became the first Asian javelin thrower to do so. He became the first Asian to win a gold medal in javelin throw at the 2023 World Championships. Chopra finished in the top two in 26 consecutive tournaments from June 2021 to September 2025, the second longest such streak in history behind that of javelin world record holder Jan Železný.

Chopra is the first athletics gold medalist for India. , he is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold medal, the youngest-ever Indian Olympic gold medalist in an individual event and the only individual to have won gold on his Olympic debut. After his silver at the 2024 Olympics, he became one of five individual multiple Olympic medalists for India. He is the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World U20 Championships, where he set the current world U20 record throw of 86.48 m in 2016, also becoming the first Indian athlete to set a world record in athletics.

Early life Family Chopra was born on 24 December 1997 in a Haryanvi Ror family in Khandra village in Panipat district of Haryana. His mother Saroj Devi and father Satish Chopra are both farmers. He has two sisters, Savita Chopra and Sangeeta Chopra.

Education and early training Chopra did his initial schooling at Bhartiya Vidya Niketan Public School, Panipat. After being teased about his obesity, he enrolled in a gym in Panipat. While training there, he saw javelin throwers practising at the Shivaji Stadium and took up the sport. In 2010, he moved to Panchkula to train at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex, aged 13.

Alongside his schooling, Chopra won several national javelin championships in 2012 and 2014. In 2021, he enrolled at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar, Punjab and then proceeded to complete his Bachelor of Arts degree.

Personal life In January 2025, Chopra married former tennis player and coach Himani Mor.

Career Beginnings (2010–2012) In 2010, Chopra took part in a trial at the Sports Authority of India centre in Panipat. On observing his ability to achieve good throws without any formal training, javelin thrower Jaiveer Singh started training him. He learned the basics of the sport from Singh and practised with athletes at Jalandhar. He finished third at the district event, and persuaded his family to let him train at the SAI centre to hone his abilities.

International level emergence (2013–2016) In 2013, Chopra competed in his first international competition, the World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine, where he finished 19th in the overall classification with a best throw of 66.75 m. At the 2014 senior nationals, he achieved his first throw of over . In 2015, he broke the then world junior record at the 2015 All India Inter-University Athletics meet with a throw of , which was his first throw over . He also participated at the 2015 Asian Athletics Championships where he finished 9th with a best throw of 70.50 m. As a result of his performance, he was called up to the national-level training camp at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala in early 2016. According to him, this was a turning point in his career, as he received better facilities, better food and an improved standard of training from what was available at Panchkula. Also, training with national level javelin throwers helped boost his morale. He subsequently received extended leave to continue his training.

Asian and Commonwealth champion (2017–2020) General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff, congratulating Neeraj Chopra (second from right) for his performance in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

In the 2017 World Championships in August, Chopra finished 15th in the overall classification with a best throw of . On 24 August, he suffered a groin injury during the Zürich Weltklasse. He sustained the injury during his third attempt of before he fouled his fourth attempt and skipped the last two. His first and best throw of gave him a seventh-place finish. He attributed his injury to a heavy schedule and the lack of a proper diet and rest. As a result of his injury, he withdrew from competition for the remainder of 2017. During recovery, he spent a month at the Joint Services Wing sports institute at Vijayanagar. In November 2017, he left for Offenburg in Germany to train with Werner Daniels, whom he had briefly worked with before the 2017 World Championships as his former coach Calvert had left India in May due to disputes over his contract. During his stay there, he focused on strength training and honed his technique with adjustments to his stance to keep his hand raised higher during throws to improve his range. In May 2018, he bettered his national record at the Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix with a throw of . In August 2018, he made his debut at the Asian Games, and was the flag-bearer for India during the 2018 Asian Games Parade of Nations. On 27 August, he won the gold medal at the Games with a new Indian record throw of . This was also India's first ever gold medal in the javelin throw at the Asian Games.

Chopra was the only track and field athlete that year to be recommended by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for the country's highest sports award, the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna. He was awarded the Arjuna Award in September 2018. The army rewarded him with an out-of-turn promotion to subedar in November. In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he trained with German coach Uwe Hohn, South African biomechanics expert Klaus Bartonietz and physiotherapist Ishaan Marwaha. Hohn worked on refining Chopra's throwing technique, which he described as "wild". After a period of recuperation and rehabilitative training in Patiala and Vijayanagar, he travelled to South Africa in November 2019 to train under Bartonietz. After a 16-month hiatus, he returned to international competition in January 2020. He registered a throw of in the Central North West Athletics League Meeting in Potchefstroom, South Africa. This helped him achieve the automatic qualification standard of and secure a place for the 2020 Olympics.

Due to the pandemic and lockdown in India, Chopra spent the next year training at Patiala. In late 2020, the Athletics Federation of India and the Government of Odisha arranged a training camp at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, which he attended from December 2020 to February 2021. On 5 March 2021, he again bettered his own national record with a throw of , which ranked him third-best internationally for the season. He applied to travel to Sweden for training, but faced difficulties due to the effects of the pandemic. After weeks of attempting to secure a visa, he was cleared to travel to Europe with his coach following the intervention of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Ministry of External Affairs. He flew to Paris on 5 June 2021 for a mandatory quarantine period before travelling to Portugal for the Meeting Cidade de Lisboa. He remained in Lisbon until 19 June before travelling to Uppsala in Sweden for training.

In June 2021, Chopra competed at the Karlstad GP in Karlstad, Sweden, which he won with a sub-par throw of . He attributed his reduced performance to a tendency to throw the javelin higher than he wanted to, along with having to use a different javelin as his own was unavailable. He won bronze at a subsequent meet in Kuortane, Finland with a throw of . Following the Kuortane Games, he travelled to Lucerne to compete in the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern, but decided to withdraw due to fatigue. He topped his qualifying group with a throw of and achieved an automatic entry to the final. In the final on 7 August, he won the gold medal with a throw of in his second attempt. He became the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal in athletics, and the first post-independence Indian Olympic medalist in athletics. He also became the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal after Abhinav Bindra and the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin throw. He also became the youngest-ever Indian Olympic gold medalist in an individual event and the only individual to have won gold on his Olympic debut. His medal helped India register its best ever finish in the Olympic Games. He dedicated his win to sprinters Milkha Singh and P. T. Usha, both former Olympians from India. As a result of his performance, he reached the world number two ranking in the men's javelin throw.

In June 2022 at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, he placed second with a new personal best of and registered another new national record. In the 2022 Diamond League, Chopra broke his own national record with a throw of during his second-place effort at the BAUHAUS-galan in Stockholm. In July 2022, he won the silver medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships with a throw of . This was India's second ever medal at the World Athletics Championships after long-jumper Anju Bobby George's bronze in 2003. On 26 August, he registered another first place at the Athletissima at Lausanne with a throw of and qualified for the Diamond League final at Weltklasse Zürich. On 8 September, he won the final with a throw of and became the first Indian to win the Diamond League in any event. In May 2023, he clinched the top spot in the Doha Diamond League with a throw of . In the same month, he achieved the first position in the men's javelin throw rankings issued by World Athletics for the first time. In August 2023, he won the gold medal in 2023 World Athletics Championships with a throw of . He became the first Asian to win gold in the javelin throw event at the World Championships.

Paris Olympics and Diamond League (2024)

Chopra qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics by hitting the Olympic Qualifying Standard at the 2022 Asian Games. At the 2024 Doha Diamond League, he finished second with a throw of 88.36 m, just 2 cm short of Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch who topped the meet with a throw of 88.38m. He won gold at the Federation Cup with a throw of 82.27 m. He then participated at the 2024 Paavo Nurmi Games where he won the gold medal with a throw of 85.97 m.

Chopra then competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. During the qualification round, he topped his group with a season-best throw of 89.34m. In the final, only his second attempt was a legitimate throw, but at 89.45m it was enough to win the silver medal. Following his gold at the 2020 Olympics, Chopra became the fifth individual multiple medallist for India and first to win a gold and silver combination. After the Olympics, he secured second place at the Lausanne meet, delivering a season-best throw of 89.49 meters. Chopra finished the season by finishing 2nd at the 2024 Diamond League.

90m mark and NC Classic (2025–) World Athletics announced a gold category javelin meet named Neeraj Chopra Classic, making it a key qualification event for the 2025 World Championships. At the Doha qualification meeting of the 2025 Diamond League, Chopra breached the long-awaited 90m mark by hitting 90.23 m. He topped the live results for the whole meet, till Julian Weber scored 91.06 m in his final throw, thus taking over the first position.

In May, Audi India announced Chopra as their brand ambassador. He then topped the Paris qualification meet of the 2025 Diamond League. His next appearance was at the Golden Spike Ostrava which he won. He proceeded to host and participate in Neeraj Chopra Classic. Chopra won the meet named after him. The event saw 15,000+ people in attendance at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. During the 2025 Diamond League final, he finished second, continuing his top two streak since 2021 and his podium finish streak since 2020. But that streak finally ended when he failed to reach the podium at the 2025 World Championships.

Coaching history Chopra has trained under several coaches, one of the earliest being Jaiveer Singh Chaudhary who coached him from 2010 to 2011. Naseem Ahmed came next and remained his coach from 2011 to 2016. Kashinath Naik was Chopra's briefest coach and trained him in 2016. Gary Calvert took over the reins from 2016 to 2017. He was coached by Uwe Hohn from 2018 to 2021.

Chopra's coaching under Klaus Bartonietz, from 2021 to 2024, resulted in several wins, titles, and gold medals. Since then he was being coached by Jan Železný until both parted their ways in early 2026. In 2026, Chopra reunited with Jaiveer Singh Chaudhary, who mentored him during his formative years.

Performance record Tournaments

Diamond League

Invitational meets YearTournamentVenuePositionResultRef. 2018 Sotteville Athletics Meet 1st 85.17 m 2018 Savo Games 1st 85.69 m 2021 Meeting Cidade de Lisboa 1st 83.18 m 2021 Kuortane Games 3rd 86.79 m 2022 Kuortane Games 1st 2024 Paavo Nurmi Games 1st 85.97 m 2025 Potchefstroom Invitational 1st 84.52 m 2025 Janusz Kusociński Memorial 2nd 84.14 m 2025 Golden Spike Ostrava 1st 85.29 m 2025 Neeraj Chopra Classic 1st 86.18 m

Seasonal bests Year Date Location Performance Notes 2013 26 July Thiruvananthapuram, India 69.66 m 2014 17 August Patiala, India 70.19 m 2015 31 December 81.04 m 2016 23 July Bydgoszcz, Poland 86.48 m WJR 2017 2 June Patiala, India 85.63 m 2018 27 August Jakarta, Indonesia 88.06 m 2020 28 January Potchefstroom, South Africa 87.86 m 2021 5 March Patiala, India 88.07 m 2022 30 June Stockholm, Sweden 89.94 m 2023 4 October Hangzhou, China 88.88 m 2024 22 August Lausanne, Switzerland 89.49 m 2025 16 May Doha, Qatar 90.23 m 2026 21 August Lausanne, Switzerland 88.05 m

Source: World Athletics

Army ranks

Recognition and honours Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India at the time, presenting the Padma Shri to Chopra in 2022. National Civilian and Military honours Year Honour Ribbon Ref2022 Param Vishisht Seva Medal Padma Shri Vishisht Seva Medal 75th Independence Anniversary Medal Other Distinguish honours YearHonour Notes Ref 2021 Army Sports Institute Stadium, Pune Renamed Neeraj Chopra Stadium By Rajnath Singh 2021 Vogue India Man of the Year First Male Athlete To Star On The Cover 2022Switzerland Tourism Appointed Indian Ambassador 2025 Track & Field News Best Male Javelin Thrower 2025 World Athletics Gold Event Neeraj Chopra Classic International Javelin Meet 2025 Audi India Brand Ambassador 2025 The Economic Times 40 Under 40 List

Awards and nominations