Neeraj Chopra admits injury fears hindered his performance at Paris 2024 Olympics

Neeraj Chopra admitted that he wasn't at his best during the Paris 2024 Olympics, as fears of aggravating an injury held him back.

Neeraj Chopra's bid to defend his title fell short in Paris as Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem unleashed an incredible throw of 92.97m, breaking the Olympic record, to win the gold medal.

The Indian ace’s Paris 2024 campaign proved to be a mixed bag. Although Neeraj recorded the second and third best throws of his career in the final and the qualification rounds, respectively, he was mentally unable to push himself in the final because of fears of injuring his groin again.

“I feel like I could have achieved greater distance in the final because both my throws in Paris (in qualification and in the final) were my second and third-best throws. In javelin throw, it’s possible to achieve an extra 3-4m if you get the angle of release right.

“However, even though mentally I was up to the task, subconsciously my body was holding back because of fears of aggravating my groin injury. I was struggling with the run-up on the track at the Stade de France resulting in so many invalid attempts,” said Neeraj Chopra in a virtual press conference from Switzerland.

The men’s javelin throw at Paris 2024 was fiercely contested. Arshad Nadeem breached the 90m mark twice and three athletes crossed the 88m mark. All of the top five athletes in the Paris 2024 final bettered Neeraj Chopra’s Tokyo 2020 gold medal-winning throw of 87.58m.

The competition in the field, especially from Arshad, only pushed Neeraj to do better in the final. His silver medal-winning throw came just after Arshad broke the Olympic record.

“He got the extra distance suddenly in the final and I felt like I could match that. Again, with the injury, I was unable to push myself the way I wanted to.