Neeraj Chopra scored the podium for India by bringing home the first-ever gold in the javelin throw at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Saturday, 7th of August 2021. With a total of seven medals including two silver and four bronze, team India gave its stellar performance despite the challenges of COVID-19 lockdown.
While Chopra’s first throw at 87.03 m eased his nerves, he broke his own record by producing the second throw at 87.58 m, which bagged him the javelin throw title. The second Indian after Abhinav Bindra to win individual gold at the Olympics.
Chopra, a son of a farmer from Khandra village in Haryana joined athletics only to lose weight. But to his surprise, he fell in love with javelin throw when he witnessed a few of his seniors practicing. He bagged gold in 2016 in the junior world championship with a record of 86.48 m which still stands in his name. Neeraj dedicated his gold to Milkha Singh who missed bronze by 0.1 second in the 400 m race at the Rome Olympics. He also wished that he could have met the legendary sprinter in person.
This great triumph has helped India surpass its previous 6 medals tally which was achieved in 2012 at the London games.
BYJU’s-An EdTech That is Making a Difference
Byju Raveendran is himself a sportsperson and attributes his professional success to his learnings from different sports activities. BYJU’S, the EdTech major has – with an intent of encouraging youngsters, announced a cash reward of Rs. 2 crores for the gold medalist Neeraj Chopra and Rs. 1 crore each for Mirabai Chanu (Silver), Ravi Kumar Dahiya (Silver), Lovlina Borgohain (Bronze), PV Sindhu (Bronze), and Bajrang Punia (Bronze).
Byju Raveendran quoted “Sports has a critical role to play in nation-building and it’s time that we celebrate our Olympic heroes, not just once in four years, but every single day. They deserve all the adoration they get, and after this historic achievement at Tokyo 2020 we are rewarding the players for their efforts, sacrifices, and achievements”.
“We hope that this small gesture will help them in their journey going forward to win more laurels for the country and also encourage many more youngsters to dream big. India has a huge potential to produce many more sporting champions. It is important to celebrate successes like this and make them heroes to transform ourselves from a sport-loving nation to a sport-playing nation. Thank you for filling us with so much pride”, he added.
