SPORTS IN INDIA
BOY WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Neeraj Chopra is an Indian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. He is the first track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for India, and the second Indian to win an Olympic medal in athletics for India after Norman Pritchard.
YET ANOTHER PROUD OF INDIAN ARMY
From a Naik Subedar, Neeraj Chopra was promoted to the rank of Subedar and received accolades for his contribution to sports.Neeraj Chopra who secured India's second individual gold in Olympic history at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has another identity as subedar Neeraj Chopra as he joined the Indian Army in 2016.
ACHIEVEMENTS IN ARMY AS CARRIER
> In 2016, Neeraj Chopra was inducted into the Indian Army in the sports quota at the rank of Naib Subedar. His parent unit was 4 Rajputana Rifles.
> He was selected for training at the Mission Olympics Wing and the Army Sports Institute in Pune. Mission Olympic Wing is the Indian Army's initiative to train promising sportspersons.
> Subedar Kashinath Naik, who won the bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in javelin throwing, was Neeraj Chopra's trainer.
> Neeraj Chopra was also trained under German coach Uwe Horn and won Gold medals for India in the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
> From a Naik Subedar, Neeraj Chopra was promoted to the rank of Subedar and received accolades for his contribution to sports. He was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2018 and the Vishisht Seva Medal, which is a decoration of the Indian armed forces.
INDIA IN OLYMPICS
With seven medals – one gold, two silver, four bronze – Tokyo 2020 has been the most decorated Olympic Games in India’s history. Here’s the story of the seven stars who scripted the success.
● Neeraj Chopra didn’t compete on the international stage for 17 months, between January 2020 and June 2021.
● Saikhom Mirabai Chanu went without competition from December 2019 to April 2021. ● PV Sindhu featured in five tournaments from March 2020 till the start of the Olympic Games.
● During the same period, Lovlina Borgohain used the money she received as part of her Arjuna Award – the second-highest state honour for Indian sportspersons – for the treatment of her mother’s kidney ailment.
● While Ravi Kumar Dahiya grappled on the mats in Tokyo, the local administration in his village in Haryana had to make special arrangements to ensure his parents could tune into the action without any electricity cuts.
● Bajrang Punia had to forfeit a match a month ago after injuring his right knee, which would remain strapped through most of his contests in Tokyo.
● The Indian men’s hockey team had spent most of the last one and a half years locked down at a national training facility in Bengaluru. In the six months leading up to the Tokyo Games, they had spent a total of four days at their respective homes
Olympic glory tends to go hand-in-hand with economic clout
As a colony, India first took part in the Paris Olympics in 1900 and won two medals. It took 108 years to better that tally to 3 in Beijing and another 4 years to go up to 6 in London. But then the medal count fell to 2 in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Till the last Rio games, India could fetch only 27 medals in 24 Olympic ventures. No wonder, India lost its soul and confidence every four years. More so, when other similarly placed countries made rapid strides towards the medal stand.
Name - M. Yuvashnee Regimental number - KA19SWA131135 3 KAR BN BANGALORE 'A' GROUP KARNATAKA AND GOA DIRECTORATE KRISTU JAYANTI COLLEGE