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Neeraj Chopra, India’s star athlete, has received the honorary title of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army. The Ministry of Defence made the announcement on Wednesday in the Gazette of India, the government’s weekly approved magazine.
Chopra became India’s most successful individual Olympian when he won a silver medal in the javelin throw at the 2024 Paris Olympics, his second medal in the Games following his historic gold in the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Chopra became India’s first track and field athlete to win a gold medal in Tokyo. He concluded his 2024 season in second place at the coveted Diamond League Final in Brussels.
“No 3 (E) dated 9 May 2025 in exercise of the powers conferred by Para 31 of the Territorial Army Regulations, 1948, the president is pleased to confer Honorary Rank of Lieutenant Colonel in Territorial Army on Ex-Sub Maj Neeraj Chopra, PVSM, Padma Shri, VSM, Village & Post Office Khandra, Panipat, Haryana with effect from 16 April, 2025,” the Gazette of India read.
Neeraj was earlier enrolled as a Junior Commissioned Officer in the rank of Naib Subedar in the Indian Army on August 26, 2016, before being promoted to Subedar in 2021 after his heroics in Tokyo.
Like the gold medalist, a few more individual medalists from the quadrennial Games are members of the Indian Army. Abhinav Bindra, who became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, was also promoted to Lt. Colonel, and shooter Vijay Kumar was named an honorary Captain after winning a silver medal in 2012.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one of the most well-known athletes to have received the accolade. After steering India to key tournament successes, including the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army in 2011.
Source: IANS
