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Olympic gold-medallist Neeraj Chopra said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated him after his momentous achievement in the Tokyo Games on Saturday, saying that he made the entire country proud and happy and his gold will motivate India’s youth to take up sports.
The 23-year-old Chopra became India’s first track-and-field Olympic medallist with his gold, which was India’s first since shooter Abhina Bindra came out tops in the 2008 Beijing Games.
“PM Modi told me that you have made the entire country proud and happy and your gold will motivate India’s youth to take up sports,” Neeraj Chopra told India Today’s Consulting Editor Boria Majumdar in an exclusive interview.
Neeraj further revealed that he requested PM Modi to support Olympic sports as India had many talented players who could bring more accolades and medals at the Olympics if given a chance.
“I requested him that please support Olympic sports as there is an abundance of talent in our country. Support sports so that we win more medals in Olympics,” Neeraj added.
Neeraj Chopra achieved what the legendary Milkha Singh and PT Usha missed by the barest of margins at the Olympic Games. Neeraj not only realised their dream but made it special by winning the Gold medal in Men’s Javelin at the Tokyo Olympics.
No Indian had won a medal in athletics since the country started taking part in the Games in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
The International Olympic Committee still credits Norman Pritchard’s 200m and 200m hurdles silver medals in the 1900 Paris Olympics to India though various researches, including the records of then IAAF (now World Athletics), showed that he had competed for Great Britain.
Pritchard was not an Indian and the country’s first Olympic participation under a national Olympic body was in 1920.
Neeraj Chopra became the only 2nd Indian after Abhinav Bindra to win an individual Olympic Gold medal. The 23-year-old from Panipat was at his calmest best, hurling the javelin 87.58m to script history for India.
