Neeraj Chopra is currently among the best javelin throwers in the world. Since his youth days, the Indian athlete has been heralded as one to dominate, and he fulfilled that potential. But a question mark still remains over his career, and that is will he ever get past the 90m mark in official competitions.

Neeraj became a national hero when he won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and also has a World Championship gold and silver. Then at the Paris Olympics 2024, he was expected to defend his title with ease. During qualification in Paris, he registered a season’s best of 89.34m in his first throw to top the table and bag a direct entry to the finals. In the final, he got 89.45m in his second attempt, which was the only legitimate throw. It saw him get a silver as his arch-rival from Pakistan, Arshad Nadeem got gold with a record throw of 92.97m.

Speaking during an interview with Lallantop, the 27-year-old was asked if his heroics in Tokyo put pressure on him for Paris 2024. He said, “Normally I don’t put pressure on myself to win gold. Normally when I play, I compete like a new athlete. I don’t think much about how I performed in the previous Olympics, how my throw was. I pay more attention to what I am going to do today. That’s where my main focus is. The body condition should be good, both mentally and physically, then only you will get a big throw.”

Neeraj Chopra’s injury struggles

Neeraj also went on to reveal how injury issues saw him fail to defend his title in Paris, and losing to Nadeem in the final. “I am facing some issues. I am dealing with a groin injury for quite sometime. So that doesn’t let me push myself in training. Since 2018, I have been feeling that I can get a very big throw and I know that. The pain I am bearing, I realize how much it has stalled my career. Otherwise talking about consistency, I have thrown 88m, 89m normally. I remain consistent. I feel I should have registered a bigger throw than these by now. But injury is such a thing, which stops your progress.”

“To remedy it, I will need to do surgery. I have taken that decision yet because groin is very tricky. It is risky, it would be hard to make a comeback. Now I am trying to strengthen it,” he added.

Ahead of the new season, fans will be hoping to see Neeraj cross the elusive 90m mark, a feat which will place him among the all-time greats in the sport.