The golden boy of India, and the World’s rank 1 Men’s Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is in contention to be the World Men’s Athlete of the Year. He is in contention with the best athletes in the world and is the first Indian athlete to have proudly made it to the list of the finals in the history of the awards. The result will be declared by World Athletics on 11th December.
Finalists of Men’s Athlete of the Year Award
Neeraj Chopra is contending against the top athletes from different countries and disciplines of Athletics. He is among the elite athletes who have made it to the finals. His top competitors include:
Ryan Crouser (USA) (World record holder in shot put and the world champion)
Mondo Duplantis (Sweden) (World record holder of Pole Vault and world champion)
Soufiane El Bakkali (Morocco) (Steeplechase World Champion and Tokyo Gold Medalist)
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) (5000m World Champion and Indoor 1500m silver medalist)
Kelvin Kiptum (Kenya) (Marathon World record holder)
Pierce LePage (Canada) (Decathlon World Champion)
Noah Lyles (USA) (100m,200m & 4x100m World Champion)
Alvaro Martin (Spain) (20km and 35km Walk race World champion)
Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece) (Long Jump World champion)
Karsten Warholm (Norway) (400m Hurdles World Champion)
Neeraj’s career so far
Neeraj Chopra is ranked 1 Javelin Thrower and the present World Champion, after a successful 88.17m throw at the Budapest World Athletics Championships, beating Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem. In the previous World Championship edition in Oregon, USA, he ended the drought of India’s medal at an Athletics World Championship with a silver medal, only the second medal of India after Anju Bobby George’s Bronze in 2003.
He is the most successful Track and Field athlete in the history of India. He came into notice with his Junior World record of 86.48m (standing) at the World U-20 Championship in 2016. He went on to win a gold medal in the South Asian Games 2016, Asian Championships 2017, 2018 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games 2018, before his historic Gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Post-Tokyo Olympics 2020
Post-Olympics, Neeraj continued to dominate the global stage, winning a Gold and Silver medal at the Diamond League 2022 and 2023, and a Gold and Silver medal at the World Championships 2022 and 2023, while he defended his Gold medal at the Asian Games. He carries the hopes of India at the Paris Summer Olympics 2024.