Double Olympic medallist and the man with 'Golden Arm', Neeraj Chopra, who represented India at the Tokyo Olympics and Paris Olympics and won Gold and Silver medals respectively, has been conferred with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army. Chopra threw 87.58 m in the Tokyo Olympics, which bagged him the Gold medal while missing the Gold from Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem at Paris, even after throwing 89.45 m. Nadeem threw a massive 92.97m in Paris and bagged the Gold medal for himself.
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Commissioned As Naib Subedar
Apart from his studies, Chopra emerged as the national champion for javelin throw in the senior category in the years 2012 and 2014. After his great performance in sports tournaments, Chopra was recruited into the Indian Army in the year 2016; here he was selected for the mission Olympics wing training at the Army Sports Institute, Pune. In the month of December 2016, he was formally commissioned as Junior Commissioned officer to Indian Army. A rank of Naib Subedar was offered to him in the Rajputana Rifles.
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Promoted To Subedar Major
He was then granted a long holiday to pursue further training. He claimed to gold medal in the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships at Bhubaneshwar with a throw of 85.23 m (279.6 ft). Chopra was promoted to Subedar Major in the Indian Army in the year 2020 after clinching the gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics. He had earlier been promoted to Subedar in 2018.