New Delhi: There’s a long-running joke between Neeraj Chopra and his German coach Klaus Bartonietz. During the previous Olympic cycle, shortly after they had started travelling together, Neeraj would often implore Klaus to “adopt” him. “Neeraj would say, ‘Coach, you stay in a beautiful village, you have a wonderful life. Why don’t you adopt me?’ And the coach would just laugh,” recalls Ishaan Marwaha, Neeraj’s physiotherapist.

After Neeraj’s Tokyo gold, Klaus turned the tables on his ward. “Now, the coach tells him, ‘You are a rich man now. Why don’t you adopt me?’ It’s been so many years but the joke still cracks them up,” Ishaan adds.

In many ways, this sums up the relationship between the reigning Olympic champion and his coach. It’s not one of dutiful reverence or dispassionate coexistence. Despite half a century separating them in age, they find common ground to connect and still have enough room for gentle ribbing and leg-pulling.

“There’s no generation gap. We listen to each other, that’s the secret of our relationship,” the 76-year-old says.

Their lives intersected at NIS Patiala in late 2019 when Klaus, at Neeraj’s behest, was appointed his coach. It was barely a year after Klaus was roped in by the Athletics Federation of India as an assistant to the then javelin coach Uwe Hohn.

Hohn guided Neeraj to gold medals at the Commonwealth and Asian Games in 2018, but his insistence on heavy training left Neeraj cagey. “Hohn’s was a very East German style of training, which meant going heavy. Neeraj felt the training was putting him at an injury risk, so he decided to move on. The great thing about Neeraj is that he is a very self-aware athlete. Right from the start, he knew what would work for him,” Ishaan says.

While he is open to experimenting, Neeraj straddles the fine line between innovation and complication. “These days, you have a lot of things — advancements in training techniques, food and more. But if we talk about athletes earlier, like Jan Zelezny, who holds the javelin world record with a 98.48m throw, they had simple training and it worked. So I try to not overcomplicate things. I try to focus on the simple things,” he had said at the HT Leadership Summit last November.

Once during his early days at NIS, a young Neeraj was not convinced with the training methods of one of the coaches, and so he convinced the authorities to let him train alone. By the time he moved from Gary Calvert to Hohn and finally Klaus, Neeraj was a finished product.

“I didn’t have to do much with him. He was already throwing 85-87m consistently,” says Klaus.

“He came across as a modest and shy boy. Changing coach was a very tough decision for him but he knew what he needed. Our relationship started to develop right from the first day, from the moment we met. It evolved step by step, day by day without our realisation. It’s like getting old...you don’t realise you get old every day. You realise these things only when you reflect,” the coach ruminates.

A renowned biomechanics expert, Klaus believes in sharing little nuggets rather than long-winded explanations. “I prefer to let the athlete decide for himself. Neeraj is quite inquisitive and if he is interested in a particular input, he wants to know everything about it,” he says.

Post his Tokyo high, Neeraj made a conscious decision to shift his training base overseas. While Europe has been a preferred choice, he has also trained in USA and South Africa in the three years leading upto Paris. The training plans are carefully curated with Neeraj, Klaus, and Ishaan brainstorming over their objectives, logistics, and competition schedule.

“After Tokyo, I found out how international athletes plan their schedule and choose their training centres so that there is minimum travel, quicker acclimatisation, and proper diet leading up to a major event. These are finer details that I discuss with my coach and a decision is made,” Neeraj had said in March, before the start of his competition cycle.

“Success depends on teamwork. My coach and physio make immense contribution. The coach reviews my technique and we talk on what’s the best style for me. We also have a specialist for strength training. Planning has been the key,” he added.

“These are very democratic discussions,” says Ishaan. “There are disagreements and debates, but the idea always is to decide what’s best for Neeraj. Once everyone is onboard, we go head-on.”

Serious as it sounds, their training and workout sessions are usually interspersed with healthy banter. Neeraj’s go-to workout music is Punjabi and it’s not out of character for him to pull Klaus into an impromptu jig. He has even taught the coach a few Hindi words. “I tell him to block like a pahad (mountain) and stretch like a dhanush (bow),” Klaus says.

“Both my children are elder to Neeraj. I am 50 years older than him. But I don’t look at him as my son or a grandson. I am his coach and he is my athlete. We have a lot of fun, but the professional dynamics of the relationship never change.” Which means that Neeraj is the boss of the triad and all their plans –- from training to shopping to dining out -- are tailored to his preferences. On days when Neeraj is unusually intense in training, they know something is amiss.

“We know how and when to keep a distance. He is super fun to be with but when he goes silent, we back off a little. You get to understand these things with time,” adds Ishaan, who has been associated with Neeraj since 2017 through JSW Sports.

“I am around ten years elder to Neeraj, which means we have a lot of things in common, but I make a conscious effort not to get too personal with my athletes. It is in their best interest,” he says. That, however, hasn’t stopped Neeraj from exchanging funny Instagram reels with him or regularly checking on Ishaan’s nine-month-old son. When the mood hits him, Neeraj reads about outer space and after having his fill on the subject on YouTube, approaches Ishaan with queries ranging from aliens to spaceships.

“We once found ourselves passionately deliberating on the differences between Swiss and Polish societies. We love to talk about everything under the sun,” says Klaus.

Neeraj followed the recent general election results in India closely and even attempted to explain the workings of the Indian political system to Klaus, a history buff. Days later, when the T20 World Cup took place in the US and the Caribbean, the reigning world champion followed India’s progress through Ishaan.

“Neeraj is a Virat Kohli fan, and he kept telling me that Kohli will fire in the final. He likes to follow all sports, wherever Indians are competing.”

Their off days are usually spent recovering and planning for the week ahead, and on the odd occasion when there is no competition lurking, the trio indulges in a rare movie night on the projector that Neeraj carries along.

“We once watched a movie involving snakes and coach Klaus was quite freaked out. It was hilarious,” recalls Ishaan. Eating out is usually out of the question, but Neeraj has developed a liking for an Italian pizzeria close to their German training base in Saarbrucken.

“He made me try some tikkas at an Indian restaurant once...it was too spicy for me,” laughs Klaus.

Their dinner table discussions usually revolve around sharing family updates and “silly nonsense stuff” while competition mornings involve a short pep talk from Klaus.

“We don’t discuss technical details during competitions. I try to keep his mind uncluttered, and tell him to trust his training,” the coach says.

While Klaus unsurprisingly counts Neeraj’s Tokyo gold as his most memorable moment with his athlete, Ishaan fondly remembers the endless walks with Neeraj while he was recovering after his elbow surgery in 2019.

“He had zeroed in on a shopping mall and we would just walk there the entire day, listening to his insecurities and dreams. I feel those conversations have deeply strengthened our bond,” says Ishaan.

A podium finish is most certainly on their Paris wish list, but they don’t discuss opponents or medal probabilities too much. “He is a gifted athlete, not just because of his physical prowess but also his clear head,” says Klaus. “He knows how to win on a big day.”

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