Javelin throw, athletics (track-and-field) sport of throwing a spear for distance, included in the ancient Greek Olympic Games as one of fiveThe javelin throw was added to the Ancient Olympic Games as part of the pentathlon in 708 BC. It included two events, one for distance and the other for accuracy in hitting a target. The javelin was thrown with the aid of a thong (ankyle in Greek) that was wound around the middle of the shaft. Athletes held the javelin by the ankyle, a leather strap around the shaft, so when they released the javelin, the unwinding of the thong gave the javelin a spiral trajectory. events of the pentathlon competition.

Throwing javelin-like poles into targets was revived in Germany and Sweden in the early 1870s. In Sweden, these poles developed into the modern javelin, and throwing them for distance became a common event there and in Finland in the 1880s. The rules continued to evolve over the next decades; originally, javelins were thrown with no run-up, and holding them by the grip at the center of gravity was not always mandatory. Limited run-ups were introduced in the late 1890s, and soon developed into the modern unlimited run-up.

Chopra became the under-16 national champion in javelin by 2012, and in the following years he won more medals at the national level. His first international medal was a silver at the Youth Olympic Games qualification competition in Bangkok in 2014. In 2016 Chopra won gold medals at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, Assam state, India; the Grand Prix in Lokeren, Belgium; and the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland (the IAAF became known as World Athletics in 2019). His throw in the final in Bydgoszcz, 86.48 meters (283.73 feet), set an under-20 record. In 2017 Chopra placed first in the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha state, India.

When he was 19, Chopra was offered a job with the Indian Army as a junior commission officer. “We are farmers, nobody in the family has a government job and my family has been supporting me with difficulty,” Chopra told the Press Trust of India. “But it is a sort of relief now that I am able to support my family financially besides continuing with my training.” In the army, Chopra was selected for its Mission Olympics Wing initiative and continued to train for competitions. The following table lists some of Chopra’s key achievements.

Games in Jakarta. In 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, Chopra was considered a dark horse in a field of tough competitors. However, he had a strong throw of 86.65 meters in the qualifying round, and in the final he won the gold medal with a throw of 87.58 meters (287.34 feet), making him India’s first gold medalist in track and field and the nation’s second individual Olympic gold medalist. The first was Abhinav Bindra in the 10-meter air rifle event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. “It feels unbelievable,” Chopra said after winning the Olympic gold medal. “This is our first Olympic medal for a very long time.…It’s a proud moment for me and my country.” His victory earned him praise from all quarters, including congratulatory posts on Twitter (now X) from the Indian president and the prime minister. Later that year, Chopra became the first male athlete to be featured on the cover of Vogue India. Speaking about his Olympic win, he said, “Now everyone in India knows what a javelin is. I’m most happy about that.” That’s no small feat in a nation where cricket is far and away the dominant sport. Chopra went on to sign endorsement deals with a host of companies, including Gillette India and Tata AIA Life Insurance, and has become an Instagram influencer with more than eight million followers. Today he is as popular as cricket stars and Bollywood actors in India.