India's Neeraj Chopra - The talk of the (Olympic) town

The young prodigy has ignited the hopes of 1.3 billion Indians as he brings us closer to the dream of winning an Olympic medal in athletics.

Neeraj has qualified for the Men's Javelin throw finals with an impressive throw of 86.65 metres in his first attempt at his first-ever Olympics.

This charming, long-haired, exuberant, and high-spirited stud catches your eyes at the first glance. 

The 23 years old heartthrob belongs to a small village in Panipat, Haryana. His family comes from a farmer background. At age 11, he got inspired by Haryana's javelin athlete, Jaiveer Choudhary, who used to practice at the Panipat stadium.

You would be surprised to know that Neeraj was a chubby teen and weighed around 80 kg when he was just 11 years of age. He got acquainted to javelin when he started visiting Panipat stadium for his weight loss journey. Noticing his interest, Neeraj's uncle decided to send him into sports and the rest is history.

At age 19, Neeraj became the first Indian athlete to have a world record in javelin throw and won gold at the U-20 World Championship.

He became the second Indian to win gold in both Commonwealth and Asiad games after Milkha Singh who achieved this feat in 1958.

Neeraj was trained by the german legend Uwe Hohn. His highest world ranking has been No. 4 in Men's javelin throw and 76 in Men's overall ranking.

Neeraj joined Indian army as Junior Commissioned Officer (Subedar). In his own words,“I accepted the job as I was desperately in need of a job to sustain my training. Nobody in my family has a government job, now I have received the one and now I can help my family financially.”  

He holds many national and international awards and already has the prestigious Arjuna Award in his name.