August 7, the day Chopra won gold in Tokyo, is now being celebrated as National Javelin Day.
The least distance he has cleared since the Tokyo gold was the 86.69m while winning the Kuortane Games title in Finland in June last year. His best is the 89.94m which fetched him a second place at the Stockholm Diamond League, also in June last year.
Compared to this, his closest competitors such as Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic has thrown below 85m many times. Of course, Vadlejch has featured in more than 20 competitions in the last two years, more than twice as that of Chopra.
It's almost the same in case of Julian Weber of Germany, who was fourth in Tokyo and also in the 2022 World Championships.
Anderson Peters of Grenada suffered a dip in form after winning gold in the 2022 World Championships -- his second after 2019 edition triumph -- and he could not even touch 80m in the qualification round here on Friday to make an early exit.
Ultimate down-to-earth and people's champion
Chopra may not be as articulate as the likes of Bindra but his 'I can't hurt or disappoint anybody' mindset can floor anyone. He would readily oblige fans in India and abroad for selfies and autographs. He will not say no to scribes wanting to talk to him.
No doubt, the Tokyo Olympics success brought certain restrictions as far as access to him is concerned with 'guards' surrounding him often, but he remains down to earth as before. He is still accessible in the playing arena.
Chopra speaks from the heart and not in a nuanced way. He would even candidly tell scribes that medals are not awarded in certain events.
Mischievous chubby kid cajoled to shed flab
But many years before he achieved greatness, Chopra was under tremendous pressure from his joint family of 17 to lose weight.
He was all of 13 at that point and had become a mischievous boy, often fiddling with the bee hives on village trees and trying to pull buffaloes by their tails.
His father Satish Kumar Chopra wanted something to be done to discipline the boy. So, after a lot of cajoling, the child finally agreed to do some running to shed the flab.
His uncle took him to Shivaji Stadium in Panipat -- around 15km from his village.
Chopra wasn't interested in running and almost instantly fell in love with javelin throw when he saw a few seniors practising at the stadium.
He decided to try his luck and, as they say, the rest is history, which would now probably make its way into school textbooks.