Picture Credit: Twitter/@Neeraj_chopra1
2021 has seen Neeraj Chopra become a household name. He has reached almost every Indian's house, courtesy of the media coverage and limelight that he deservedly hogged after he achieved a historic feat at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. His gold-medal winning effort in the Men's Javelin Throw event ended the country's century-long wait for a medal in Athletics at this event and while even a silver or bronze would have been equally celebrated, Chopra remained at the pole position throughout right from the qualifying round to show the world that the nation is quite capable of producing Olympic champions.
Although there were fans who followed his career prior to his Olympic medal as he had done well in other international forums, his popularity grew manifolds ever since his javelin flew the 87.58 m distance- the number which will be hallowed in Indian sporting history. And now it is being revealed that Chopra in fact was the most searched personality on Google as declared by the search engine's year-end list for India in 2021.
Sindhu, Punia and Sushil other sports personalities to make it into top-10
PV Sindhu, Bajrang Punia and Sushil Kumar were the other three sports personalities who made it into the top-10 of this most-searched list which was majorly dominated by Bollywood celebrities.
Recently, Chopra was seen training school kids in Gujarat which happens to be the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Taking notice of Chopra interacting with the young kids, Prime Minister hailed Neeraj's efforts and said that it was commendable how the star athlete was taking time out to motivate the young kids on sports and fitness.
Earlier, Chopra himself had taken to Twitter to share his initiative.
"Had a wonderful day at @sanskardham_In interacting with students, playing sports with them and speaking to them about the importance of exercise and diet in fitness. It's great to see a school that offers such a balance of sports & academics. @PMOIndia @ianuragthakur," he tweeted.
The 23-year-old is currently in the United States of America for his off-season training and has put the Olympic gold behind him to focus on his training. He has the Commonwealth and the Asian Games in sight in 2022 and has a personal ambition of breaching the esteemed 90 m mark in the sport.