Fame, and all that comes with it, is not new to Neeraj having broken into the scene five years back, right before the Rio Olympics, where he created a new Under-20 world record to bag India’s first-ever gold in a junior World Championship. While it was too late for him to use his throw to try to qualify for the Rio Olympics, Neeraj ensured he finished on top of the podium at most big events he represented the country, like in 2018, when he bagged golds at the Commonwealth and the Asian Games.
An individual Olympic gold though is that rare a feat in India that the fame and adulation Neeraj finds himself in the midst of, is unknown to almost all but one. With daily felicitation ceremonies, the life that the javelin-thrower has been caught up in, will also become a norm for him. A gold that just literally changed his life. A life that he had lived much of alone, in a room at the NIS campus in Patiala, for the last five years, training daily to get here.
But, has the realisation struck…