Saina Nehwal‘s bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics led to a badminton revolution in India, especially among the women trying to make it big in the sport, which makes her one of the icons of badminton in the country.
The 34-year-old from Haryana, who recently turned to politics, is a three-times Olympian besides being a Commonwealth Games (CWG) gold medallist on three occasions and winner of two bronze medals at the Asian Games.However, her recent comment about the track-and-field event javelin throw is in shocking contrast to her multiple appearances at global multidisciplinary events since the 2006 CWG.
Appearing on a podcast, Saina’s response to podcaster Shubhankar Mishra’s comment that he didn’t know about javelin throw until Neeraj Chopra won Olympic gold in Tokyo startled the viewers.
“When Neeraj won (Tokyo gold in 2021), that’s when I got to know there is such an event in athletics,” she said in the teaser of the yet-to-be-released episode.
Five years before becoming the Olympic gold medallist, Neeraj was crowned the junior world champion in 2016.
He also became the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 2018.
Before his silver medal at the Paris Olympics this week, where Pakistan’ Arshad Nadeem pipped the defending champion to gold, Neeraj was crowned the world champion at the 2023 Budapest World Championships.