NEERAJ CHOPRA

In the last two years, he has endured an injury that ruled him out of most of the 2019 season after a surgical procedure on his throwing arm, the pandemic that cancelled out most of the 2020 athletics season and resulted in the Olympics being postponed, and a lead up to Tokyo where he had to plead with authorities to arrange for him to attend a few international competitions.

“After the pandemic started I was not getting to go to any competitions. I kept saying that I need to go and throw at international competitions. Finally I got a few just before the Olympics, and that helped,” Chopra said. Come his night and all of that was forgotten.

“The only thing I thought about during the event is that anything is possible,” he said.

With his very first effort, he had thrown down the gauntlet, in the form of a spear — 87.03m — and he was leading the field of finalists. He would have won the gold with that throw (the silver medal went to Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch at 86.67m) but he did one better with his second -- 87.58m.

He didn’t even have to look at the javelin land to know he had done something special. He rose from his followthrough with his back to the field and roared, before raising his arms with a smile.

“When I released the second throw, I felt like it would be my personal best,” Chopra said.

“Till I got to know the distance, I was sure it was my personal best. It was not the perfect throw, must have got too much height on it. But I was pretty sure I had got a medal. After that, it was on my mind that I will get the Olympic record – 90.57m. I think because of that, I overdid it. Went too fast on the approach. It was only on the last throw that I was stable again.”

Chopra’s next throw was only 76.79, his next two throws were disqualified and his final effort landed at 84.24m.

Before the last throw, the medal was already his, but he took it anyway just for fun and perhaps because he still believed he could break the Olympic record.

“I suppose I can work hard, break more records later,” he said sheepishly. “But right now maybe the Olympic gold is a bigger thing.”

For a nation that has never before won an Olympic medal in athletics, the sport that, in many ways, defines the Games, it was everything.