Neeraj Chopra Groin Injury: Did Neeraj play with a groin injury at Paris 2024 Olympics?
Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra entered the Paris Olympics 2024 as a reigning Olympic champion, having secured the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. However, he couldn’t defend his title at Paris 2024 but settled for the silver medal. After the final, Chopra stated that he had been suffering from a groin injury for the past few years.
With the Paris Olympics coming to an end, Chopra is likely to undergo surgery to treat his long-standing groin injury. He has been contemplating surgery over the past few months.
The legendary javelin thrower also emphasized that the regular injuries in the run-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics severely impacted his preparations for the title defense.
“The last two or three years were not so good for me. I’m always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to work on my injury (staying injury-free) and technique,” Neeraj Chopra told reporters after the final.
He also added that whenever he gets ready for his throw, 70–80 percent of his focus stays on his injury, as he doesn’t want to aggravate it. Before the previous World Athletics Championships, his doctor advised him to go for surgery, but Chopra delayed it with Paris 2024 lined up.
Additionally, in the practice sessions before the Olympics, Neeraj Chopra couldn't give his best as his injury affected his run-up and throws.
Neeraj Chopra could manage only one clear throw in the final
Chopra had a pretty strange evening on August 8, as he managed to bag only one clean throw in six attempts in the final. However, that one throw was enough for the star athlete to bag an Olympic medal.
Importantly, the competition at Paris 2024 turned out to be intense as there were eight throws better than Neeraj Chopra’s previous gold medal-winning throw of 87.58m at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Despite putting up his career’s second-best throw, the Tokyo Olympics champion Chopra had to settle for the silver medal as Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem’s 92.97-meter throw in his second attempt was enough to bag a gold.