Abhinav Bindra praised Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic performance, highlighting the immense expectations he faced and the challenges of delivering under pressure on an imperfect Olympic stage.
New Delhi: The historic sporting rivalry between India and Pakistan, once prominent in hockey, has now been reignited on the Olympic stage through an unexpected discipline: javelin throw, featuring India’s Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem.
In Tokyo, Neeraj Chopra clinched gold while Arshad Nadeem missed the podium, but in Paris, Nadeem broke the Olympic record to secure gold, leaving Neeraj with silver despite a personal best that still fell short of the elusive 90m mark needed to win.
Despite managing a groin injury, Neeraj Chopra came close to the 90m mark with a best throw of 89.45m. After becoming only the second Indian, alongside rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra, to win an Olympic gold in an individual event in Tokyo, Neeraj’s follow-up silver in Paris was hailed by Bindra as an “incredible feat.”
“I think we are all very proud of him. The Pakistani (Arshad Nadeem) is a worthy winner on the day, the way he performed. But I think Neeraj should be proud of himself,” Bindra is quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
Abhinav Bindra acknowledged the immense expectations placed on Neeraj Chopra, noting that he was virtually the only Indian athlete for whom winning gold was an expectation, not just a distant aspiration. “There will be a level of disappointment, which is fine, because that’s how the life of an athlete is. You’re not gonna get everything going your way, but he performed admirably. A lot of expectations were also on him. It’s not easy to be in that spot, but he delivered. Now, he can go back to the drawing board and reassess what needs to be done. Really work on how he can make the big leap,” said Bindra.
Bindra pointed out that the Olympics is an imperfect platform for athletes to deliver their best performance due to the myriad of factors and pressures surrounding the event. “The Olympics is a very, very hard platform to perform at for a variety of reasons. But the Olympics is also a platform which is imperfect for performance. Because there’s external expectations, and you also have internal expectations, that just doesn’t allow you to let go,” said Bindra.
The 2008 gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, emphasized that athletes require a certain level of freedom to truly let go and deliver their best performance, a freedom that is rarely achievable at the Olympics due to the intense pressures and expectations. “Performance sometimes is almost artistic in nature. That’s where you almost have to allow it to happen. And the ability to let go is very difficult. So skill is almost thrown into the dustbin. Sometimes for most athletes, there will be a few who are just so great, but for a majority, it’s not just picking up your skill and trying to get things together. You have to almost find perfection on that imperfect day,” he said.