NEW DELHI, 23 November 2023: Veteran Indian sports journalist Mr. Norris Pritam has penned the gold medal-winning journey of India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra. “The Neeraj Chopra Story. The man who made history’ is being launched in New Delhi on December 7. The author has spoken to every stakeholder in Chopra’s Olympic golden achievement in javelin in the last Games at Tokyo. Norris has spoken to Chopra’s family members in his native village in Khandra in near Panipat in Haryana, his childhood friends, early coaches, his arch rival Johannes Vetter of Germany, 1972 Olympic javelin champion Klaus Wolfermann and the well-known surgeon Dr Dinshaw Pardivala and officials of his sponsors JSW among others.
The book also deals at great length with careers of some former top Indian athletes. The author makes a successful attempt to find answer why these stars like Sriram Singh, P. T. Usha, Charles Borromeo and several others couldn’t reach where Neeraj has. All these legends have complimented Chopra and have extended their sincere congratulations. But at the same time rued the fact that during their heyday they had hardly any facility to excel despite the hard and sincere work they had put in. The kind of backroom support Chopra has, these old Masters never had. The author has brought some of the hidden facts of Indian athletics to the fore through the book.
Six-time World boxing champion and Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom has written the foreword of the book. She has explained the similarities between her sporting journey and Chopra’s. How they both rose from humble background to stardom.
Randhir Singh, a former IOC Member and Acting President of the Olympic Council of Asia in his comments about the book said: “Norris Pritam has been an athlete himself and a sports journalist for close to four decades. He has covered several Olympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and World Championships. The book is therefore full of interesting anecdotes and his experience lends depth to the narrative. It is a valuable addition to the literature on Indian sports, with a special focus on athletics’’.
Well-known journalist and Editor-in-Chief, The Print, Shekhar Gupta calls the book “An intimate look at the life of the rarest of rare Indian, a track and field Olympic gold medallist’’. Another top media personality Rajdeep Sardesai said “A must-read for all those whose heart beats for Indian sport and indeed for India.’’
The book, published by international publishers, Bloomsbury is priced at Rs 399 (paperback) and can be preordered at – https://www.amazon.in/Neeraj-Chopra-Story-Norris-Pritam/dp/9354353576
or at https://www.bloomsbury.com/in/man-who-made-history-9789354353574/
