With Chopra’s silver and four bronze medals, three of them coming from the shooting contingent last week, India stood 63rd in the medals table. Arch-foes Pakistan were 10 notches above thanks to Nadeem’s gold, the country’s lone medal at the big event.
A day after wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s heartbreaking disqualification from the 50kg gold medal bout, the Indian contingent was desperately hoping for medals from the hockey team and Chopra.
Both delivered but Chopra, despite becoming a bonafide legend in Indian athletics with his consecutive Olympic medals, was a shade underwhelming, managing just one legitimate throw, the medal-winning 89.45m effort.
It was a season’s best performance but not enough to get him the gold, which was snared by Nadeem with a throw of 92.97m, a new Olympic record that left the Stade de France stunned.
The earlier Olympic record stood at 90.57m in the name of Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway, set during the 2008 Beijing Games.
Thorkildsen was watching the proceedings from the stands, along with three-time Olympic champion and world record (98.48m) holder Jan Zelezny of Czech Republic.
Nonetheless, Chopra became only the third Indian and the first in track and field to win back-to-back individual Olympic medals.
Only wrestler Sushil Kumar (2008 and 2012) and shuttler PV Sindhu (2016 and 2021) have won back-to-back Olympic medals.
