At the Asiads, the Indian wrestling team will march into the stadium stateless and compete as neutrals, because one man—the prime accused in multiple cases of sexual abuse—has been jockeying to maintain his control over the WFI.
When Neeraj Chopra pulled out of the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham citing a groin injury, and then withdrew from the 2023 FBK Games in the Netherlands earlier this year because of a muscle strain sustained during training, I googled “Neeraj Chopra training” and came across a video that exhausted me just watching.
More recently, I espresso-ed myself into a state of wakefulness to watch Chopra compete in the javelin finals of the just-concluded World Athletics Championships in Budapest. From the start of his run-up to the moment when the javelin speared into the ground way ahead …
Prem Panicker has been a journalist for over 30 years. From daily newspapers to weekly magazines and digital news portals—he was one of the seven journalists who were part of the Rediff.com start-up team—he has written and edited features extensively across mediums and publications. Since quitting his job at Yahoo in 2014, he has been working as a freelance writer and editor, as well as teaching narrative journalism.
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