We all are aware of how Sub Neeraj Chopra won the Gold in Olympics and won our hearts too, but little are we aware of how he took the journey towards becoming this successful sports personality. Let us prod a bit deep into his life and understand how he became the youth icon and an inspiration to many for breaking all the barriers.

Farmer’s Boy
Sub Neerajcomes from Haryana (Panipat) born to a farmer’s family in the year 1997, 24th of December. A simple farmer’s family with two elder sisters, a homemaker mother (Saroj Devi) and father (Satish Kumar) who does farming in a small village called Khandar. No one could have guessed at this stage that one day he would be the pride of our nation.

His journey from fit to successful
Dealing with fat-shaming is common everywhere but unacceptable to anyone who is going through weight issues, personally Neeraj too was trying to manage his weight issues and wanted to get fit. He began his fitness journey by indulging in numerous sport activities. Soon, he took liking to javelin throw and we all know rest is history.
• His first ever performance that drove him to prominence was at World U-20 Championship, Poland, setting a new Junior World Record with a throw of 86.48m.
• He won Asian Championship 2017 in Bhubaneswar with a throw of 85.23 m.
• Sub Neerajbegan his formal training under Uwe Hohn of Germany and bagged a Gold medal in Commonwealth Games 2018 with a throw of 86.47m.
• In the Doha leg of Diamond League 2018, he didhis personal best of 87.43m.
• Won the Asian Games with a throw of 88.06m.
• Conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2018.

Serving the Indian Army
His journey with the Indian Army begin on May 15th 2016 with direct enrollment in 4 RAJPUTANA RIFLES where he also got selected for his formal training provided by the army at Mission Olympics Wing and Army Sports Institute, Pune. It is the premiere wing in the Indian Army that identifies talent and train elite sportsmen like Sub Neeraj. The wing is known to strain and select for eleven disciplines at five Mission Olympics Nodes to excel in various national and international competitions.

It is all with his hard work and his training at the Mission Olympics Wing that he bagged the Gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics. With this achievement, there was no turning back, he got awarded VSM (VishishtSeva Medal) in the same year as a recognition to his sports excellence.

We at Hapell take the initiative to highlight talent and inspire many more on their journey onwards while facing various challenges just as Sub Neeraj Chopra did. We are all proud of him and his achievements wishing him good luck for his future endeavors and many more success to come his way.