Paris: In one of Neeraj Chopra’s recent Instagram videos, Julian Weber turns videographer for a top-angled slo-mo shot of the Indian’s run-up in a training session. Those 15 steps, each rhythmically synced with the other, are brilliantly captured as he runs up to flex that right arm and fling that javelin into the realms of your imagination.

It’s been 35 months, though it may feel like yesterday, since Chopra pushed those boundaries of imagination with that throw on that August Sunday evening on that unforgettable final medal night of the Tokyo Games.

Three years is a long time in sport. Roger Federer no longer calls himself a professional tennis player; the Indian men’s cricket team can now call itself world champions. Yet in this wonder world called the Olympic cycle which every athlete lives for, it’s a year short.

And so here we are. Bringing up India’s seven-medal Tokyo high in Paris sooner than the norm. If those pandemic-delayed Games of 2021 marked the country’s best ever outing, these Games of 2024, which will officially kick off on Friday through the opening ceremony by the river Seine, present a case to further accentuate the growth trajectory.

Its context this time extends beyond the number of medals won on the field, and onto a narrative off it. Earlier this week, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said countries to have shown interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics ran into “double digits”. India is one among them, with a pitch made public at last year’s IOC Session in Mumbai and carried forward by the Indian Olympic Association. Another uptick in medals captured and hearts won will add richer flavour to the ambitious hosting dish.

Recreating that Tokyo recipe, though, will take some doing. Right from the opening day of those Games when Mirabai Chanu lifted a silver medal and the collective mood of a nation to Chopra hurling that javelin and scripting history for the last Indian medal, the steady seven-medal flow was unprecedented for India.

A confidence-injecting, medal-announcing beginning cannot be underestimated. Compare Mirabai’s silver-studded start of Tokyo 2021 to the painful wait for India to get off the mark in the two-medal 2016 Rio Games.

Starting push

A lot this time hinges on the shooters firing, not just for the positive start but more pertinently for India to match or even better their outing from three years ago.

Tokyo was another disaster to follow the Rio dud, leaving shooting with much to deliver to avoid a third straight fruitless Games. The rousing pre-buildup hype around World Cup medals made way for resigned faces behind the masks in Tokyo. Most of those faces aren’t around and there are no lofty castles built three years on.

This is a younger squad hoping to bring in the Hangzhou high (note of caution again: more than half of the 22 medals were team medals) to the ranges of Chateauroux. Whether the fresh faces, approach and perspective fire up the medal-winning feel remains to be seen. With shooting, there’s a fine margin between a hit and a miss. As is with archery, another early medal sport where Indians have met with more disappointments than delight.

Tokyo medallists

What was indeed a delight, and a roll back to those heydays on the turf, was the men’s hockey team finding a place on the podium again after four decades. Three years on, under a new coach and style of play, getting back up there again appears a much stiffer climb. The group is tricky, India’s recent form a bit sketchy, and the big European contenders apart from Australia come in with game time (with club hockey shut during the pandemic, they lacked that in Tokyo).

The theme of uncertainty rubs off on some other medal winners of Tokyo as well. Mirabai has been laid low after the Asian Games hip injury, while PV Sindhu has been out and about after injuries in grappling to rediscover her old touch. Both these women of steely mentality, however, know how to turn it on when it truly matters.

Boxer Lovlina Borgohain has been flying under the radar though still very much packing some punches. Wrestlers Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia have faded away to the extent that neither will be in Paris.

Bunch of hopefuls

Stepping in are younger wrestlers, the likes of Aman Sehrawat and Antim Panghal, who would have to step up in their first Games. No debutant perhaps carries as much hope in this contingent as Nikhat Zareen, who is finally setting foot in the ring of the Games. Stepping out of the shadows of Mary Kom, the two-time World Championships boxer now finds herself in medal-dazzling spotlight.

So is the badminton duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy. The world No.3 men’s doubles pair is richer by the experience of Tokyo and pedigree of being World Championships bronze medallists, Asian Games champions and the heart of India’s Thomas Cup triumph.

Also richer in global accomplishments is Chopra, who has, since Tokyo, marked his golden stamp at the World Championships, Diamond League and the Asian Games. The reigning javelin throw champion’s consistency has been remarkable sans the sporadic drops in level. And, like he has often spoken and proven in Hangzhou last year, he loves defending what’s his. At the Olympics, that’s gold.

If that dreamy Tokyo night still feels like yesterday, Paris is upon us tomorrow.

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