India’s ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s t-shirt, which he wore in the Paris 2024 Olympics, has been inducted into the prestigious World Athletics Heritage Collection. The reigning World Champions and the Paris 2024 Olympics silver medallist is among 23 athletes whose competition artefacts were recently added to the World Athletics Heritage Collection.
“Keeping our Olympic collection up to date, we are proud today to be announcing donations from a trio of Paris 2024 medallists: Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Thea LaFond and Neeraj Chopra,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said as quoted from Olympics.com.
Other Paris 2024 medallists who also contributed to the unique collection featured Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who donated her singlet, name bib and shorts. Yaroslava shattered the world high jump record at the Paris Diamond League before claiming Olympic gold this year.
Dominica’s first Olympic medallist, Thea LaFond, gifted the crop top she wore during her victorious triple jump final at Paris 2024. In total, 32 artefacts related to 23 athletes from 12 countries were added to the World Athletics Heritage Collection this week.
Neeraj has redefined the landscape of athletics in India and on the global stage. He made history in Tokyo by becoming the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Olympics. He followed it up with a silver in Paris 2024, with a throw of 89.45m.
He missed out on defending his crown after his arch-rival Arshad Nadeem produced an Olympic record effort by sending his javelin to a distance of 92.97m. Recently, Neeraj announced the start of an exciting new chapter in his career, partnering with Javelin legend Jan Zelezny, who came on board as his new coach.
Zelezny, a three-time Olympic and World champion and the current world record holder, has long been an idol to Chopra.
