Neeraj Chopra, India's Olympic gold medal winner short-listed for Laureus Breakthrough Award

Neeraj Chopra, India’s first ever winner of an Olympic athletics gold medal, is celebrating another prestigious honour, after being selected as one of the six Nominees for the 2022 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award.

A panel of more than 1,300 of the leading sports journalists and broadcasters in the world have selected the Nominees in each of seven categories for this year’s Laureus World Sports Awards. The Winners will be revealed in April, following a vote by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the world’s ultimate sports jury, made up of 71 of the greatest sporting legends of all time.

Chopra, who won his gold medal in the men’s javelin in Tokyo, is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold, the other being Abhinav Bindra in air rifle in 2008. At the age of 23, he was making his Olympic debut in Tokyo. He won the gold medal with a throw of 87.58 metres in his second attempt.

He is only the third Indian athlete to be nominated for a Laureus Award, after wrestler Vinesh Phogat in 2019 and cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who won the Laureus Sporting Moment Award 2000-2020, which marked the emotional moment during the 2011 ICC World Cup, when his team carried him on their shoulders in a lap of honour after India’s win.