All eyes are on Neeraj Chopra ahead of the Diamond League and after his silver at Paris. Neeraj will take part in the Lausanne chapter of the Diamond League on Thursday, August 22, 2024. This, with a groin injury, which was already there when he competed at the Olympics and won silver.
Now, with Neeraj, we Indians are greedy, and rightfully so. An athlete like him has come at long last for us. He comes, he sees and he conquers. Even during the qualifier in Paris, he made the highest mark with a single throw, but gently pushed away suggestions of a gold medal as premature, from the media in the mixed zone. After his silver medal, social media was inundated with comments about the waste of national resources on his training! And the severe disappointment of a silver! If even we set aside the ridiculousness of such comments and the ignorance that spawns them, it shows what Neeraj stands for in the popular imaginary.
But what we DON’T champion enough and what is emblematic in Neeraj’s case is consistency. When Neeraj Chopra plays, you expect a medal, if even he is playing with an injury. We had the chance for an exclusive interview the day after his final in Paris, and a colleague asked him if he had ever finished off the podium at any completion! To which Neeraj replied with his characteristic humility. Yet, it is that element of consistency in any athlete that makes it a rare virtue.
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Given the varying levels of disappointment with the Indian campaign at Paris, and the several medal prospects that proved otherwise, this quality of consistency is something that is of paramount significance. And therein Neeraj could be anybody’s role model. A day can have its ups and downs for anybody, including a superlative athlete like him. It could be luckier for your opponent. The day of his medal match was Arshad Nadeem’s day and the Pakistani broke the Olympic record to be there. It’s a feat to be celebrated. But Neeraj was not too far behind. He threw his season’s best, and that’s a consistency that counts for anybody in any field of life. That’s what makes Neeraj worth a study.
Interviewing Neeraj, it struck me that there is a certain spirituality about him. He talks about his endeavours and his ongoing work on his sport like it is worship. Like he knows no other life except for practise his sport day in and day out.
He is grounded in the way of life that he was born into, although he travels the world the greater part of the year. And it’s that grounded part of him perhaps that keeps him going without many distractions.
Neeraj is a peaceful warrior, who knows he has to keep fighting for tomorrow, if even he wins today’s war. Or he could be like the farmer who wakes up at sunrise to sow his field and keeps on at it through the day, to wake up again to the same task, knowing it to be his calling, and a place where he feels blessed.
Neeraj is our golden boy, and our silver boy — he is much decorated. But more than anything else, he comes with life lessons. And that’s not only for sports people, it’s for us all. To endeavour and persevere and to deliver despite that day’s ups and downs. To be a consistent performer — a victor in some form or other!
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