On August 7, 2021, India got the hero it was long waiting for. Twenty-three-year-old Neeraj Chopra, a debutant Olympian, won a gold medal with a javelin throw of 87.58 metres in his second attempt in the Japan National Stadium at the Tokyo Olympics. These details are important, because other than the javelin, Chopra has catapulted into history for several other reasons. He became the first Indian Olympian to win a gold medal in athletics, only the second Indian to win an individual gold. He is also the youngest ever Indian gold medalist to have won in any individual event and the only one to have bagged a gold in his Olympic debut. That’s a mouthful of firsts.
But wait a minute. There is another.