India has been in the grip of Neeraj Chopra's fever after the 25-year-old javelin star ended India's long wait for a maiden gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on the weekend.
Chopra pipped Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem in the final after one of his throws covered a distance of 88.17m, with the latter securing the silver with a throw of 87.82m, his season's best.
Notably, with his victory at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Chopra picked up the lone yellow metal missing from his cabinet.
Having finished on top of the podium at the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Diamond League, and Under-20 Championships, Chopra finally secured the same at the World Championships, thus completing his full set of gold medals at all major competitions in athletics
Immediately after his win, Chopra was compared with legendary names in Indian sports, with some even saying that he is now the greatest Indian athlete of all time.
What Makes Chopra the Greatest Indian Athlete
Though Chopra himself downplayed the social media discussions over the topic, stating that he wasn't the greatest, his friend and fellow international javelin thrower Parvinder Choudhary, did not buy such a modesty.
Choudhary, a long-time friend of the reigning Olympic and World Champion, stated that there was not an iota of doubt about it that Chopra was the greatest Indian sports star ever.
"From U-16 to the senior level, if you see Neeraj Chopra's journey, he has won everything that was there to be won, including gold medals at the Olympics and World Championships, and that's why, I believe, he's the greatest Indian athlete ever," Choudhary told Sputnik India on Wednesday.
Furthermore, Choudhary, pointed out that unlike cricket, which is arguably the numero uno sport in India popularity-wise, Chopra's feats have come in athletics, which is played all over the world.
According to him, for instance, a discipline like javelin sees the participation of athletes from more than 120 nations during qualification events for the Olympics and subsequently in the quadrennial competition, also called the biggest sports spectacle on Earth.
In contrast, a Cricket World Cup is mainly a 10-16 team competition.
Choudhary's opinion was seconded by Wazir Singh, who trained Chopra during his formative years and currently serves as the High-Performance Director of Athletics at the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) headquarters in Delhi.
Chopra - A Gift to Indian Sports
Describing Chopra as the "most consistent javelin thrower in the world" right now, Singh credited his balanced mental approach for his success in high-pressure international tournaments like the Olympics and the World Championships.
"Athletes from 202 countries participated in the World Championships in Hungary and if we keep that thing in mind, then Neeraj's accomplishments are matchless in the Indian context," Singh said in an interaction with Sputnik India.
Singh added that "Chopra was a gift to Indian sports", considering he has not allowed his success to get to his head, particularly when he has emerged as the "greatest sporting hero" for a country of 1.4 billion people.
He stressed that it was Chopra's down-to-earth nature that was keeping him in good stead, and given that he has had a long run of title-winning performances, the Haryana-born athlete could very well repeat his top-podium finish at next year's Olympics in Paris.
Singh concluded that India should be proud of Chopra because he has given wings to the dreams of millions of youngsters in India who now want to earn laurels for the country.