The wedding season can be quite overwhelming if you are not very social. Or if you are an Olympics gold medalist.
India’s first Olympics gold medal winner in athletics, Neeraj Chopra is facing a unique problem, where has to train in the US because it’s the shaadi season in India and he was getting too many invites.
It would be safe to assume that there are more reasons behind this decision, but just the fact that weddings happen to be one of them is quite something.
In a recent interview published in The Tribune, Neeraj was quoted as saying:
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
We are no world champions, but this is totally understandable.
He also said that he had put on a lot of weight since coming back to India after the Tokyo Olympics, and being in the US is helping him get back in shape, which is essential for him as an athlete.
I love Indian food so I ate everything after Tokyo. I did not think about my diet as an athlete so I gained around 12 to 13 kilograms. In the last 20 days, I have reduced a little over 5 kilos, which is closer to my off-season weight. It was a struggle to get back to training, as I had to force myself to complete the workouts. It was difficult. I had body aches and I had to put in a lot of effort.
Love his commitment.