India’s only Olympic medal-winning athlete, Neeraj Chopra, is gearing up to defend his title at the Paris Olympics where he will once again be facing competition from some of the best javelin throwers in the world who have already crossed the 90m mark. Neeraj’s best throw is 89.94m which came at the Stockholm Diamond League 2022. The 26-year-old, however, feels that performing on the crucial day matters the most.

The Olympic champion in an online press conference spoke about the challenge of breaching the 90m mark, defending the Olympic gold medal and his camaraderie with compatriot Kishore Jena, who finished fifth at World Athletics Championships 2023 and won silver at Asian Games 2022.

Excerpts from the press conference

On dealing with the pressure of defending his Olympic gold

It’s there in my mind that I should win the Olympics again. That’s the reason I’m working so hard. But to avoid taking pressure on it, I try to focus on the immediate competition I have before the Olympics. There’s time to go to the Olympics. If I can perform well before the Olympics, that will put less pressure on me at the Olympics. The goal is to defend my title, but I need to concentrate on all these competitions before the Olympics.

Is he aiming to breach the 90 mark at the Olympics?

I will try to breach the 90m mark before that (Paris Olympics). Hopefully, it happens before Paris, everything is going on smoothly, so (people) might not have to wait till the Olympics, it might happen before that. The preparation is good.

On competitions he will be taking part in before the Olympics

I will be competing at the Doha Diamond League and the Paavo Nurmi Games next month. I want to compete three or four times before the Olympics. I’m still discussing with the coach on which competitions I need to take part in. I’ll probably compete in any Diamond League or Continental Gold Series competition. These are high-level competitions, and hopefully, I will be competing against who I might face in the Olympic final.

On facing javelin sensation Max Dehning, who recently became the youngest to cross the 90m mark

I will compete with Max at the Paavo Nurmi games. I’ve never competed with him before. He went from throwing 79m straight into 90m. He skipped the 80m page completely. It will be fun to compete with him. When I competed at the Tokyo Olympics and also at last year’s world championships, many athletes had throws over 90m. So it’s not a new thing to compete against people who have thrown that distance.

What matters is what you can throw on that day. I am excited to get a chance to compete against them. The more they throw in competition, the more fun it becomes. When we are competing together, the main factor that determines the winner is who handles the situation on that day better than the others.

On difference in his mentality from before Tokyo Olympics to now

After Tokyo, the self-confidence has definitely gone up. Besides, I have also played quite a few events… two world championships, a silver and a gold there, won the Diamond League trophy, made some good throws, then retained the Asian Games gold (in Hangzhou) as well. So, the success between Tokyo and Paris has given me a lot of confidence that yes I can do it against strong competitors.

.My mind tells me it’s the second Olympics, so this time I am more mentally and physically prepared for Paris. I have not done much as far as mental training goes but I know, ‘yes this is my second Olympics’ and that feel is there.

On any technical changes that he may have made to his throw

I’m not making any changes, but I’m making improvements. Furthermore, I’ve not started a lot of technical work right now. In the first few months of the off-season, I’ve mostly been working on fitness and injury prevention. If there is a muscle that’s prone to injury, then I’ve worked on it. I’ve only just started the javelin-specific training.

On Kishore Jena’s chancees

The way he has progressed in the world championships and the Asian Games, who knows Kishore might breach the 90m mark before me. 90m mark atka hua hai, but kabhi na kabhi ho jayega (That 90m-mark has not come thus far, but some day it will happen).