The sporting world is celebrating World Athletics Day on Saturday. Meanwhile, YouTube India has depicted Neeraj Chopra's journey in its Creating for India series.
World Athletics Day is being celebrated on Saturday across the globe by the entire sporting community. India has produced various athletes who have dominated the sport for quite a long time. Recently, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra has become a famous name in the country, while YouTube has immortalised him.
Chopra made India proud during the Tokyo Olympics last year when he won the gold medal in the javelin throw. He became the country's only second Olympic gold-medalist after shooter Abhinav Bindra, while he was the first athlete to win an athletics medal for the country in the event. He also holds the national record for the longest throw.
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Meanwhile, on Chopra's journey being featured by YouTube India on its Creating for India series, his sponsor JSAW said in a statement, "Through this association, Neeraj is hopeful to use his platform on YouTube to build awareness about athletics and the sport of javelin amongst the youth across the world. Apart from setting up his own official YouTube channel where he will be putting out regular content about his sport and life, the partnership will also see Neeraj be part of customized campaigns to motivate and inspire India’s next-generation through his journey."
Also, JSW Sports Head of Sales and Marketing, Divyanshu Singh remarked, “We are extremely excited about this partnership because we believe YouTube is a great platform for Neeraj to tell his inspirational story to a wider audience. The video format is hugely popular for content consumption across urban and rural India, and we are confident that Neeraj can be a perfect role model to take the sport of Athletics [and Javelin throw] to millions of India’s youth.”
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The short clip of the series was shared by YouTube and Chopra on social media, where he says, "People around me were amused and used to ask why I was wandering around with this stick [javelin]. I told them that this is also a sport and there are competitions for this."
"I would always be told that I should take up a sport with a better future, like cricket, wrestling or kabaddi. At that point in time, there were not many sources for training in javelin throw. So, we used to watch the videos of the best javelin players from across the world on YouTube," Chopra added.
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"It was a big thing to be able to watch videos of the best javelin players while living in a small village in Haryana. That is because there were no CDs [Compact Disks] of these videos available in the market, but everything was there on YouTube. When I searched for 'World Record Javelin' on YouTube, I came across Jan Železný and his video surfaced," Chopra continued.
"That's when I realised what a marvellous athlete he [Železný] is. When I saw his world record throw of 98.48 metres, I realised that he is indeed the best and through watching his videos, I started following him from thereon. He was a thrower who had a very smooth run-up with his javelin," Chopra reckoned.
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"His [Železný's] cross-step and attack were unparalleled. His leg blocking and the way he controlled himself were extraordinary. Then, it just became my routine. Just me, Železný and YouTube. Every day, at 5 AM, I used to catch a bus or any available ride, such as tractor, bike, or a lift, etc from my village Kandra to the Stadium," he further recalled. Watch his clip above.
