Neeraj Chopra, India's star athlete and the country's brightest prospect of a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, is in fantastic position to win another medal at the quadrennial event, reckons Inspire Institute of Sports' (IIS) Spencer Mackay. While the 26-year-old had sustained several injuries and had to undergo treatment in the past 3-4 years, Mackay feels he is in the best physical condition to make the country proud again.
"He (Neeraj) is in excellent physical condition and well-prepared," Mackay said in an interview with PTI videos talking about the 26-year-old who will miss the Diamond League to focus on the Paris Olympics.
"His past injuries and recent niggles are now an afterthought. When the Olympic finals begin, Neeraj will be in a fantastic position to win another medal for the country."
READ HERE | Prime Minister Narendra Modi To Meet T20 World Cup-Winning Indian Team On July 4
"For an athlete, it is not warranted to perform at the best all the time, especially for athletes like Neeraj who compete at the highest level. But his plan is very clear: to keep himself fit, strong, and well-balanced to give his best shot at the Olympics."
Main Focus To Tailor Rehab Programs Based On The Situation: Mackay
Spencer has been at the Inspire Institute of Sports since Day 1 where India's top athletes spend time for rehab and recovery.
"India has a lot of scope to enhance the performance of their athletes which will result in better results.
"As long as the scope for sports training supplemented with sports science, development of coaches, the scope for India to massively increase the medal haul come the next Olympics games is going to be clear."
"Our elite performers train offsite but our main focus is to tailor rehab programs based on the situation and the injury sustained based on the data we have about them.
"We also have in mind the psychological aspect of an athlete suffering a specific injury and the way he or she suffered it in mind.”
"If we have more contact with them, we can do more based on the capability of the athlete and how much we have been able to expose him or her to development over time being a key component of the rehabilitation process during the injury situation.
"But regardless we are happy to be in a situation where we have been able to affect athlete rehabilitation in a positive way and to see them returning back to the performance level they had before, is an incredibly rewarding position."