Neeraj Chopra

Lieutenant Colonel Neeraj Chopra (born 24 December 1997) is an Indian javelin thrower. He has won gold medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games, Asian Championships and Asian Games. Chopra has won the Diamond League once. He won the Olympic gold medal in 2020 and became the first Asian javelin thrower to do so. He became the first Asian to win a gold medal in javelin throw at the 2023 World Championships. Chopra finished in the top two in 26 consecutive tournaments from June 2021 to September 2025, the second longest such streak in history behind that of javelin world record holder Jan Železný.

Chopra is the first athletics gold medalist for India. As of 2024, he is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold medal, the youngest-ever Indian Olympic gold medalist in an individual event and the only individual to have won gold on his Olympic debut. After his silver at the 2024 Olympics, he became one of five individual multiple Olympic medalists for India. He is the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World U20 Championships, where he set the current world U20 record throw of 86.48 m in 2016, also becoming the first Indian athlete to set a world record in athletics.