“Kangana Ranaut of sports” - Fans troll Saina Nehwal for not being aware of javelin throw as a sport until Neeraj Chopra’s gold at Tokyo Olympics

London Olympic bronze medalist shuttler Saina Nehwal recently admitted to being unaware of javelin throw as a sport until Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Nehwal was part of a podcast with journalist Shubhankar Mishra when she made this startling comment.

"When Neeraj won, that is when I got to know about athletics has got this game too. You'll gain knowledge only when you see it, right? If you don't see, how will you know? I did not know about javelin throw. Frankly, I didn't know," said Saina Nehwal.

The comment didn’t go down well with the netizens as they were quick to troll the three-time Olympian.

“Saina Nehwal is becoming kangana ranaut of sports,” a tweet read.

“Saina Nehwal you are a legend and I have immense respect for you lekin abhi apka bohot ho raha hai,” a frustrated fan wrote.

“Saina Nehwal actually said she didn’t know there was a sport called javelin in India? Like seriously she said that?,” another user stated.

“Thank God Saina Nehwal didnt say that No one knew of Badminton until she started playing it,” a tweet read.

“It took just one week for her to prove that she is Kangana Ranaut of sports,” read another tweet.

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Neeraj Chopra emerged as the junior world champion in 2016

It’s worth noting that prior to his heroics at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the ace Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra burst into the spotlight when he emerged as the junior world champion way back in 2016.

Additionally, the 26-year-old also turned out to be the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medalist in 2018. Most recently at the Paris Olympics 2024, the reigning world champion secured the silver medal with his season-best throw of 89.45m.

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