Both Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem have been in the midst of medals. If Chopra has won the Gold Medal for India at Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and a host of others in World Championships, Nadeem has also won Gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2022. They have both broken records and set new ones.
In all of this, where is the good ol' European dominance? For the IOC, this symbolises democratising of the Games, and the Committee is not complaining! New Delhi: The silver lining for India and a golden moment for Pakistan arrived in the form of a Javelin throw! When Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra stepped on the Olympics 2024 podium in Paris to receive their medals, Gold and Silver, it was indeed a portentous occasion for both the nations. Not because these medals would better our tally and give us both respectable ranks in the Olympics table, not also because it was a fine display of sportsmanship spirit, but because the twin feat shows South Asia’s dominance in a sport that was previously not the case. The fact that the third spot, for bronze, was won by two-time world champion Anderson Peters from Gernada (Eastern Carribean country) further questions the erstwhile European supremacy in the sport.
After all it’s taken 116-years to break this jinx of not having an European in the podium of the event. Nadeem, Chopra and Peters had tough competition in the final draw with European greats like Julian Weber of Germany and Jakub Vadlejch (Czech), the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist als.