Paris: What would a medallist — of any medal colour, for an Indian context — speak of right after the job that takes years of toil is done? Of satisfaction. Of pride. Of euphoria. Of endless thank yous. Take your pick; you’ve heard it before.

Here are the first words from Neeraj Chopra.

“Saare hi throws foul the, uss ek ko chodh kar (all the throws were fouls, except the one),” he chuckled.

Gentle reminder: this is a silver medallist of the Paris Games.

With that one legal throw of 89.45m, Chopra took the second-best spot up in the podium, after Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem had sealed his with the wonder 92.97m effort. With that one legal throw, the Tokyo Games javelin champion’s gold-silver double took him to greatness-pushing periphery beyond the realm of anyone else in Indian sport currently.

And yet, deep inside, Chopra felt a sense of discontent. The pain of the long-standing groin trouble refusing to go away. The pain of not being able to summon the one big throw on the big night, and those much farther that he knows are inside him than his current best of 89.94m. The pain of having to constantly check himself in training and guard his body from breaking the shackles during competitions. The pain that no silver lining could hide.

We aren’t used to this in Indian sport. Then again, we aren’t used to a champion like Chopra. For whom silver is great, but gold remains the standard. For whom medals are fine, but distance remains sacrosanct.

And so, on an evening he painted Paris silver in the golden company of a friendly neighbour, Chopra spoke about pain well into the night.

“Khainch raha hoon abhi (I’m pushing myself currently),” Chopra said, the India flag wrapped around his shoulders. “The distance that I believe I have inside me... until I don’t get that, shaanti nahi mil payegi (I won’t be at peace).”

The 26-year-old hinted at the option of surgery in fixing the recurring groin issue that he has carried since 2017. A major competition every season would stand in the way of it, but now could be the right time. Because until that is done, the oft-posed 90m question from the outside, and along with it the answer he seeks from within, will continue to elude.

“I’ve been throwing consistently over 88m for a long time now. My coach (Klaus Bartonietz) always tells me, if everything gets fine, blocking leg theek lage and the groin gets better, the same throws will go 2-4m further,” Chopra said.

For now, about his throws as they are, he has a question.

“Aap khush ho na (you’re happy, right?)”

Gentle reminder: this is a silver medallist of the Paris Games.

Chopra’s unmatched consistency in world javelin over the last few years is largely down to the “jhatka” that his right arm can produce. He had to summon it again on Thursday for that second throw after Nadeem’s Olympic record mark. But there’s only so much, and only so many number of times over, he can do with just the upper body functioning without nagging hindrances.

“I trust my arms. That no matter if the rest of the body doesn’t function, mein jhatka toh bahut tez maar lunga. But when the blocking leg, and other technical nuances, don’t come along, it is very difficult to throw with just your arm,” he said.

Chopra hasn’t been able use the length and momentum of the full runway since last year for his throws. “Throwers usually do 40-50 throws in one session. Mera kya pata session hi 2-3 week mein lage ek baar (I maybe do one session in 2-3 weeks). Because of the fear of injury,” he said.

Chopra loves to joke about his English, and interrupted himself while speaking in it. “I need to motivate myself, like for a competition,” he smiled.

But then, at another instance, he also almost choked up, taking a pause as long as the javelin stayed up on its path for his second throw.

“Jab tak throw nahi hogi na, jab tak javelin ke saath kaam nahi hoga, (till the throw doesn’t happen, work with the javelin), it will be very difficult.”

Gentle reminder: this is a silver medallist of the Paris Games.

The groin has kept him from turning up for more competitions of late. This season, the adductor issue restricted his pre-Games tune-up to three meets. He doesn’t like missing competitions one bit, does Chopra, and then telling his team, “chalo, ek accha sa message banate hai — sorry, nahi khel payenge wala (let’s put a nice message on social media about my pullout)”.

“Many competitions, mein sharm sharm mein khel liya, ki organisers ko kaisa lagega (I played many competitions in embarrassment, just feeling for the organisers),” Chopra said. “I want to play in as many competitions. And when it doesn’t happen, bada dukh hota hai, yaar (it feels very sad). To play is the primary thing, performance is secondary.”

Chopra has won everything there is in his field with those performances — medals at the Olympics, World Championships, Diamond League Final, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games. The second Olympic medal pins a larger stamp of his greatness in India’s sporting past, present and future.

He doesn’t wish to personally put any tag on himself even now. But at least we could, for a change, talk about the legend of Chopra.

“Kush hu ji (I’m happy),” he said. “When I started, I didn’t even think I would stand here at a stage like the Olympics and do things like this. Pata nahi kaise aa gaye yaha tak (I don’t know how I came so far).”

He wants to keep going. “Lamba career”, as the 26-year-old put it. It might need a bit of a reset to fix his body for the next Olympic cycle. And to dig out a throw India’s most decorated athlete is sure lies deep inside him.

“I’ve been throwing for many years, and I know from within that I have it. Aage bahut kuch baaki hai (There’s a lot more to come),” he says. “Today was not my day, maybe.”

Gentle reminder: this is a silver medallist of the Paris Games.

Read Also: Paris 2024: Arshad Nadeem's incredible journey to the top