Neeraj Chopra: ‘Need to compete with hosh and josh at Paris Olympics’

As the clock ticks down to the Paris Olympics, Neeraj Chopra is morphing into a very familiar, lean, mean, and hungry avatar as he bids to defend his title in the men’s javelin. He goes in as one of India’s favourites. In an interview with  Sportstar, he addresses concerns over his adductor muscle that’s kept him from competing for much of the season, the challenge of having a target on his back, talking to himself between throws, and the need to throw with both  hosh and josh (awareness and energy).

What’s it with your short hair and the Olympics? You had a similar style ahead of Tokyo as well!

I got a new short haircut because it’s so hot here in Gloria (the training base in Turkey where Neeraj is preparing for the Olympics). It was getting difficult to manage my long hair in this heat. It won’t grow back in time for the Paris Olympics!

How is Gloria treating you? What does your room look like?

I like being in Gloria. I have a painting of hurdlers, tennis players, and gymnasts in my room, and there is even a picture of Andreas Thorkildsen (the 2004 and 2008 Olympic champion in the men’s javelin). Right outside my window is the athletics track and throwing area. This is the best view for an athlete.

In the previous Olympics, the talk was all about whether you would hit the 90m mark. This time, the focus is on your adductor muscle due to rumours of an injury. What’s worse?

I believe the previous discussion about throwing 90m was much better. I don’t even want to think about getting an injury. That’s why I tried to explain why I was absent from that tournament. There are many Diamond League competitions, but I don’t need to participate in all of them or incorporate them into my training plan. I didn’t even register for the Paris Diamond League, but despite that, when people saw that I wasn’t participating, it became a big story that I had suffered an injury. That’s why I felt the need to clarify the situation. Right now, everything is good, and I believe that as the Olympics draw closer, other things will improve and fall into place.

What are you most looking forward to about Paris?

I hope everyone follows the Olympics this time. Hopefully, this time too, we’ll be able to achieve something great. All our athletes have a lot of energy and belief this year. I also think a lot of people will come from India to Paris to watch the Olympic Games.

Also, unlike Tokyo, where the stands were empty (due to COVID-19), the galleries will be full this time, and there will be a lot of people present. I find it very thrilling to perform in front of a big crowd.

Life seems to have changed a lot for you since Tokyo. Do you still eat the same thing? Do you still listen to the same Ragini music, or is it more English songs these days?

I recently trained in Saarbrucken, Germany, with the Indian boxing team. During their stay, they had a personal chef from Patiala with them. Thanks to this, I was able to enjoy the same kind of food that I used to eat when I trained as an athlete in Patiala after so many days.

Taste-wise, I will always be inclined towards Indian food because that’s what I enjoy the most. But now I’m not adamant about only eating Indian food. I can adjust, and I’m fine with eating whatever is available. But it’d be nice if I got to eat Indian food occasionally when I’m outside of the country.

But on a daily basis, I’d prefer to eat the kind of food that is available outside of India. I try not to eat Indian food daily, as it’s not ideal to train after eating masala-filled Indian food. I try to eat more simple and boiled food before training, as it’s better for my body. Back in Patiala, I had the habit of eating Indian food daily, but now I’ve changed that habit for quite some time.

And the second thing regarding Ragini music… I listen to it occasionally nowadays. The main reason is that there are not many new songs that I like that much. Maybe because my mind is stuck in the past, I still have a special preference for the older songs on my playlist. I very rarely listen to new releases, whether they be Ragini or English songs. I find myself understanding the lyrics of English songs a bit more nowadays. Initially, I didn’t understand anything. But if you ask me, I still have my favourite Ragini songs like  Karke Haar Shringar, which I have been listening to since I first joined the sports hostel in Patiala.

You weren’t the favourite going into the Tokyo Olympics. This time, you are the defending champion. What difference does it make in your mindset?

At that Olympics, (Johannes) Vetter was the favourite. I admit that there was more attention on the other athletes. I was focussed on myself, but I was under much less pressure because it was my first Olympics.

But despite that, javelin was on the last day of the competition, so all that pressure kept building up, and it still came down to me. Everyone else was done. That meant that everyone’s attention was just on me because I was the last Indian in action.

This time, it’s different because I’ll be defending my title. I got a little experience of what that’s like at last year’s Asian Games [Hangzhou], where I had to defend my title from 2018. However, I can’t compare that to the Olympics. The fact is that there will be extra expectations from me. It will be more than it was last time. It’s impossible to call it anything other than pressure.

But the goal is clear to me: it is to defend the title. How to deal with that pressure is up to me. I always remind myself not to think about the fact that I am an Olympic champion. Every time I compete, I approach it as if it were my first time. I think that is very important. If I dwell on my past gold medal win and feel the need to repeat it, I’ll unnecessarily put extra pressure on myself. So, I focus on what I have to do on the day of the competition. I am trying my best to keep myself fit. I don’t have time to take risks or do something new.

For a long time, you usually did enough to win competitions in the first couple of throws, but at last year’s Asian Games, you had to push yourself in the finals. What does it take to push yourself even more, considering you are already competing at your limit?

Even in the end, if you continue to push yourself, you can still get your best throw. At the Asian Games, I was trying to play it a little safe because it was the last competition of the season, but as soon as Kishore (Jena) took the lead with his third attempt, I immediately felt I had to push myself. When you get that feeling of competition, you always feel that you have to give everything on that day.

Even in Doha (the Diamond League, where he made his season’s best throw of 88.36m in his final throw of the competition), something changed from the inside when I knew I had to make that final push. It’s not that I’m consciously running faster or throwing harder; it’s something that switches on automatically.

I always give the example of the 2017 Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar, where I won the competition with my final throw. At that point, I felt I had nothing more left to give. I didn’t think I had any energy for that final throw. At that time, there were 18 throwers in the final. The competition lasted for 1.5 or two hours, and I was tired because of the heat and humidity. But I learned that day that there is something inside me and maybe all of us. You can call it a mindset that propels you to the finish line. All you need is that mindset and that trust in yourself that you can still do it.

Neeraj, you look a lot leaner right now compared to the start of the season. Is this accurate?

Yes, you are right. I was a little bulky at the start of the season in Doha. I don’t know if I get extra focussed or if my body takes more energy now that we are so close to the Olympics, but automatically, I seem to start getting a lot leaner. Perhaps I’m a lot more focussed on what I’m eating. I’ve also become very particular about my training and recovery. Everything has to be perfect, and because of that, I think I’ve become leaner. I am also taking care of my recovery.

Right now, I weigh about 88 or 89 kg. I prefer staying in this range. I don’t like weighing more than 90 kg. If I go above that weight, then I don’t feel like I am as fast as I want to be. When I’m on the runway and feeling good, I feel as if there is a current running through my body. But if I am even a couple of kilos heavier than what I consider my ideal weight, then I feel like speed and energy are missing. It’s not that I don’t feel strong, but I don’t feel as quick.

It’s not as if I don’t make good throws. At last year’s World Championships and Asian Games, I was a little over 90 kg, but at the last Olympics, I was about the same weight as now — about 87 or 88 kg.

While you look leaner, when we see your Instagram posts, it seems you are lifting as heavy as possible.

My speed and elasticity have indeed been my strong points, but there are some things I have been doing differently in this Olympic cycle. I have added a lot of strength training as well. There is a shot putter from Germany named David Storl, and he was telling me that you can’t expect anything new if you keep repeating the same things. If you do the same thing again and again, don’t expect that you will get an amazing result. So, I tried to get stronger this Olympic cycle. At the same time, I strove to increase my strength without sacrificing my flexibility and speed. I can’t compromise on those things. The other athletes might have a lot of power, and that might be their strong point. I have a combination of speed and flexibility, and I am trying to combine it with some more strength and power. After the Tokyo Olympics, it’s not just that I’ve become stronger; I have thrown further as well. I know a good throw will come. I’m not worried about that at all. There are also a few technical areas I am working on. The problem is that if I start feeling a problem in my groin, then I can’t throw as much. I can’t push myself as much. So I can’t do more technical work.

What would you consider the differences between Neeraj the athlete in Tokyo and Neeraj the athlete in Paris?

Physically, I am definitely stronger. I am also three years older. I have a lot more experience now. After the Olympics, I’ve competed at two World Championships and done well in both of them. I’ve won gold at the Asian Games once again as well. Speaking just of the major competitions, I’ve also done well at the Diamond League and Continental Gold Series. After the Olympics, I’ve mostly had good results.

Throughout these competitions, I’ve been dealing with some groin issues. However, I’ve learned how to manage my injury while still competing in numerous tournaments. As a result, my mindset is much more confident now, knowing that I can consistently perform.

Whenever I speak to other athletes, I tell them this as well. I tell them that before the last Olympics, I didn’t have a single good position in any of the Diamond League competitions. Now I’ve done well in all of them.

It’s not as if I had no confidence before the Tokyo Olympics. I had won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games as well. Perhaps the confidence started building up over there. But the Olympics was the biggest platform in my life. It’s almost as if I had a new sense of belief after that. I actually got the feeling that I could win at this level as well.

I had nothing more to prove. I’d competed with the world’s top throwers in the biggest competition and beaten them. So that was a different thing.

After the World Championships, you said that you were looking to find some happiness while you were competing. You didn’t want to push yourself that much in a competition. Were you able to achieve that?

It wasn’t just me. A few days ago, Abhinav Bindra said something similar. He said, ‘Don’t treat athletes as robots; they are humans and not the factory that wins medals’. In India, we have a mentality that only those who win medals are considered athletes and not those who simply participate. After the World Championships, I felt that I already had a gold medal at all the big competitions. Many athletes have said that when you play with a relaxed mind and body, you produce incredible performances.

I’ve tried playing under pressure; I’ve tried believing that competition was everything, but now I’m also trying to enjoy the moment. When I played in the Zurich Diamond League and then the Asian Games, my mindset was different, but the performance was still good. So, yes, I have tried to make that shift so that I can also enjoy my game.

It’s hard to produce the best performance all the time, but as long as you are happy and enjoying yourself, the possibility of winning definitely increases.

You have a lot of challengers at this Olympics. Perhaps your strongest challenge will come from Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic, who has beaten you a couple of times last year (at the Zurich Diamond League and Prefontaine Classic last year and the Doha Diamond League at the start of the 2024 season). What is it like to compete with him?

It’s all good. Jakub isn’t on social media, but whenever we meet, we talk, and he’s a good human being. When I finished 2 cm behind in Doha, he told me this was revenge for the last time! (Tokyo Olympics). The last time we competed together at the Diamond League in Doha, I won the competition with a throw of 88.67 and he had 88.63m. The margin was very fine. I’ve beaten him at the last Olympics and the World Championships as well. So that’s why he said that. Such competition is healthy.

But I don’t think it will be the same at the Olympics. At the major competitions, everyone’s mindset is quite different. At regular competitions, we will chat and congratulate each other for good throws. But at the Olympics, we don’t really talk in the middle. It’s very different.

Maybe not to others, but do you talk to yourself between the throws?

The only person you can talk with is yourself! If I think the last throw was good, I’ll tell myself I can do even better. If it wasn’t good, I would tell myself that I needed to do better. I’m usually telling myself to do better now because at both the Budapest World Championships and then at the Doha Diamond League, I really didn’t start well. People think I’ll always make winning throws on my first attempt, but it isn’t like that. I try my best, but it takes time for things to come together. Most of my conversations are internal, although sometimes I’ll also go up to the coach to ask for advice on changes I can make. Those internal conversations are very blunt; they are said with some amount of  khundak (ill will). I don’t curse myself or anything, but I’ll tell myself in  Haryanvi,  ‘Tu itna bhi nahi kar sakta?’ (You can’t even do this much.) I’ll motivate myself by telling myself that I must do this. I can’t go without completing what I am there for. Whatever I have inside me, I must give it out on the field. I’ll remind myself to keep my focus on throwing with proper technique. If my technique on the runway isn’t good, then that will mean I’ll have to compensate by increasing the speed of my arm, which isn’t the best way to throw.

So do you throw khundak nikalne ke liye, or do you throw with focus?

It’s both. Javelin is a sport where you need both hosh and josh (focus and energy). If you are thinking only technically, you won’t give all your strength, and if you are only using muscle, you are not going to throw very far either. Both things are useless. That’s what happened at my last Olympics. In my third throw, I threw entirely with strength. I even started celebrating. If you saw my third Olympic throw, I put my body on the line and I also celebrated, but it was only around 76 meters. That was because when I was throwing the javelin, my arm turned inward just a bit, and that caused the throw to curve and fall short.

How much hosh and how much josh are you feeling right now?

I try to use my mind when training, but in competition, what ends up happening is that I get passionate. That “hard-hitting” attitude comes through. There’s no way to avoid it. It’s almost muscle memory now. Because at that point, all the hard work and technical training have been done. The only thing that matters is that I have to give my very best. I have an attitude where I’ll give my 100%.

Perhaps you can go all out in a competition that only lasts one day, like at the Diamond League or Asian Games. What do you do when you have to perform on two separate days — at the Olympics?

Even though the first day is a qualification round, I learned the hard way at the London World Championships (and it’s good that I learned this very early on) that I can’t take it lightly. At that point, the qualification standard for the final was 83 meters. I thought, at that time, I could do this easily. So, I was relaxed and focussing on the finals. My first throw didn’t touch 83m and I started to panic. The second didn’t go well, and neither did the third. That turned out to be one of the few competitions where more than 12 throwers made it to the final. There were 13 automatic qualifiers. I think it’s a little easier to make the final now — if you throw over 82m, you will probably do so. But I learned from that competition not to take qualification lightly. It’s vital because you’ll also get a boost going into the final. I felt really good at the last Olympics as well because I qualified for the final with my first throw. It was the same at the Budapest World Championships as well. I felt really good that I had it in my body to throw even better. So now I focus a lot on the qualification round and try to qualify in my first throw there so that I can start to focus on my final and go in with a strong mindset.

You have had a few injury concerns this year. You have also said that your health is now your priority. So, when you train, how do you determine how much effort to put in?

It depends on your energy level that day. If I’m throwing and don’t feel energetic, and if it’s hot, I focus more on my technique. The throw might only be around 70–75 metres, but I look at improving the techniques and making the runway approach smoother. There are also times when you start to feel overly enthusiastic, and that’s when you must also stop because, at such times, you become prone to injuries. When you’re preparing for a big competition, you are very excited, you feel you can do maximum workouts, and you always feel ready, but you must use your brains, learn to follow your plan, and be a little calm. If I compare my workouts now to what I was doing four to five months ago, it is a lot more. As I’m getting closer to the Olympics, I’m getting a lot sharper, but at the same time, I have to be careful to avoid any injuries.

As we get closer to the Olympics, what are you dreaming about today?

I don’t remember my dreams vividly, but yes, I do get dreams about javelin throws. I dream that I’m already competing and throwing at the event. I don’t know how to explain it; it’s quite weird. Sometimes I’ll be throwing a javelin, lifting weights, throwing shot puts, or even a medicine ball in the dream. Before I know it, I’ll wake up because I’ll be doing the same things in real life.

You have been very successful in your sport. At the same time, we’ve never seen you pull down any other sport. You always seem very supportive, even towards sports like cricket, which a lot of people believe takes away a lot of attention in India. Why is that?

I believe an athlete should respect whatever their sport gives them in the first place. One should never take it for granted that we deserve something. Even while growing up, I always knew that cricket was on another level, and the attention a cricketer received would always be more than that of an athlete playing any other sport. But that didn’t mean I had no option but to choose cricket. I always wanted to pursue javelin as it was the sport I liked. I had no idea that I would end up winning an Olympic gold medal. I picked up the sport because I loved it.

I did not choose to be a javelin thrower because I felt it would make me famous or because it was a way to earn money. I did it because I enjoyed not just the sport but also the hard work I needed to put into it. When I first went to the stadium in Panipat, where I started my journey as a sportsperson, there were many choices. I never once regretted choosing the javelin throw. If you respect your sport and feel satisfied with it, then nothing else should matter.

At the Doha Diamond League, I was asked how popular I was in India. I never tried to compare myself with the likes of Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni because I’m very well aware of the reality of what I am in India. Yes, obviously, after the Olympics, people recognize me a lot more, but I know there is a stark difference in my popularity compared to that of a cricketer. Cricket is played in every single alley in the country. It’s not like people practise javelin throw in the same way.

But it is encouraging that people have started to watch and know more about other sports in the country. But the way forward should be to make your sport popular. If someone draws a line in front of you and asks you to jump past it, you don’t ask them to erase that line and draw it closer to you so that it’s easier for you to jump past it, will you?

In the same way, I don’t want any shortcuts to making my sport popular. I want my sport to become popular with my hard work and effort.

If there are more javelin-based competitions in India, like the Diamond League, people will become more interested in watching and following the sport. With talented javelin athletes in India, there should be national-level leagues to compete. This would help to boost the sport in India.

In India, people have a good understanding of cricket and its rules. Similarly, if there are more athletics competitions in the country, the general public will gain more knowledge about athletic sports, leading to more popularity of these sports.