Valarie Allman, two-time Olympic gold medallist discus thrower, heaped praise on Indian javelin throw ace Neeraj Chopra on his silver at the Paris Olympics 2024 following up on his gold-winning showing at Tokyo 2020, sharing a champions’ perspective on living with the weight of success. “It’s an incredibly difficult task to manage success. And I think sometimes it’s harder to manage success than it is a failure.
And when you become an Olympic champion, it changes the chemistry of your mind and how you carry yourself,” said the champion athlete, who won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and recreated the magic three years later in Paris,” the 29-year-old said. “You start to hold yourself to a higher standard and it’s easy to lose that magic of what got you there. You feel the pressure of needing to win.
You feel the excitement of your country. There’s new endorsement opportunities and, I think, if you’re giving your best, you put yourself in that realm of being able to win,” the four-time Diamond League winner continued. She touched upon the uncertainties that exist along the journey to triumph citing the factors that could sway the result on the day of the competition and lauded Neeraj’s effort to claim back-to-back podiums.
“There’s so many factors that have to come together on the day when centimetres can separate a performance. And, what Neeraj did to win the Olympics and win World Championships, he’s created an amazing string of global champion.
