The coronavirus situation in the country earlier this year was pretty decent with all the restrictions put to rest. Therefore, people decided it was a good time to plan their postponed weddings and other social functions.
While a majority of us loved dressing up and hogging on delicious shaadi ka khana after nearly two years, some, including the Olympics gold medal winner in athletics, Neeraj Chopra, thought the multiple wedding invites were distracting him from following his daily routine.
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Therefore, the 23-year-old Javelin thrower decided to move out of the country to focus on his training. In a recent interview with The Tribune, India’s second individual Olympic gold medallist said:
“The shaadi season is on. You get a lot of invites from family and friends, besides Patiala is really cold these days. The weather here is perfect. My only focus here is on training, rest and diet.”
“I am back to spending the normal life of an athlete, where you only focus on sports and nothing else,” he said reasoning why he moved from India to the USA.
Ending the year with a golden memory created by javelin superstar Neeraj Chopra! 😍🥇#Tokyo2020 | #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/2FRL0qF7od
— Olympic Khel (@OlympicKhel) December 31, 2021
Chopra has started his 90-day training at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Centre in San Diego with an aim to compete in the Diamond League. As he’s away from the country during the wedding season, he is focused and at peace religiously following his routine.
“My life here is very simple. I have my breakfast by 7:30 in the morning and then head to the centre where I train for over two hours. We eat our lunch there and then we return to our apartment to rest and recover. We head to training again by 4 in the evening. We finish training and return after dinner. After that, it is a normal day where I call up family or friends and rest. I will be honest I have to put a lot of effort into training but I am very happy to get back to training,” he added.
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However, he adds that it was really tough for him to lose the weight that he had gained post his remarkable victory at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“After coming back from the Olympics, I had no restrictions on eating. I ate everything from sweet to whatever I liked and I gained 12-13 kg. So getting back to training was very difficult. Since the body was caving in, I had to push myself more mentally every time.”
Times Of India further quoted him saying, “Now things are getting better and I have reduced 5-6 kg. I have been doing fitness and endurance training for the last few weeks that I am here and hopefully, I can get back to the javelin training soon.”
I agree with you Neeraj. Losing the shaadi season weight is tough. Hope you shed the load and breach the 90m mark at your sport in the next competition.