Neeraj Chauhan sold vegetables in 2020. Now he has Asian Games bronze

Neeraj Chauhan lost his semi-final 1-7 to Japan's Junya Nakanishi, then beat Dhiraj Bommadevara, the top seed and a fellow Indian, 6-4 for the bronze in the men's recurve individual event at the Asian Games. Chauhan, 24, is the second Indian man after Tarundeep Rai, who won silver in 2010, to win an individual recurve medal at the Games.

After the semi-final, his mind went back to 2020. In the Covid-19 lockdown his father, Akshaylal Chauhan, lost his job as a cook at the Kailash Prakash stadium in Meerut, and Neeraj and his elder brother Sunil sold vegetables.

"It's hard to start afresh after a loss in the semis and the chance to secure the LA Olympics quota for India. But then I also thought about the time when I along with my brother sold vegetables pushing the cart through the streets near the Civil Lines area in Meerut to help our father. It was the toughest phase for me and if I could come out of it, then I could also win the medal here," Chauhan said. "I dedicate this medal to my father, who did everything to support me."

Full list of India's 85 Asian Games medal winners (Click on ➕ sign on the right 👉 to expand)

Athletics

Kiran, Prachi, Poovamma Machettira and Vithya Ramraj - Women's 4x400m relay - Gold

Sreeshankar Murali- Men's long jump- Silver

Vishal T.K., M.R. Poovamma, Manu T.S. and Vithya Ramraj -- Mixed 4x400m relay - Silver

Gulveer Singh -- Men's 10,000m - Silver

Sawan Barwal - Men's Marathon - Silver (He ended India's 44-year wait for a medal in the event -- and became the first Indian to win one outside home soil)

Tajinderpal Singh Toor - Men's Shot Put - Silver

Sarvesh Kushare- Men's high jump-Silver

Gulveer Singh- Men's 1500m-Silver

Ancy Sojan- Women's long jump- Silver

Yashvir Singh -- Javelin -- Silver

Pooja - Women's high jumP - Bronze

Gurindervir Singh, Animesh Kujur, Harita Bhadra and Sneha SS - Mixed team 4x100m relay - Bronze

Dharmveer Choudhary, Manu T, Jay Kumar and Vishal TK - Men's 4x400m relay - Bronze

Rohit Yadav -- Javelin -- Bronze

Prachi -- Women's 400m -- Bronze

Harita Bhadra -- Women's 200m -- Bronze (This was India's first medal at the Asian Games in eight years)

Tejaswin Shankar -- Men's decathlon -- Bronze

Parul Chaudhary -- Women's 3000m steeplechase -- Bronze

Baranica Elangovan -- Women's Pole Vault - Bronze (became the first Indian to win an Asian Games medal in the women's pole vault event)

Vithya Ramraj -- Women's 400m hurdles -- Bronze (Beat PT Usha's four-decade-old record in 400m hurdles that was standing since 1984)

Parul Chaudhary -- Women's 5000m -- Bronze

Seema Kumari -- Women's 10000m -- Bronze

Manpreet Kaur -- Women's Shot Put - Bronze

Gulveer Singh - Men's 5000m - Bronze

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Shooting

Kamaljeet, Suruchi Singh -- 10m air pistol mixed team - Gold

Neeru Dhanda -- Women's trap individual -- Gold

Neeru Dhanda and Kynan Chenai -- Mixed team trap -- Gold (This was India's first-ever gold medal in the trap mixed team event at the Asian Games. The score of 34 hits out of 40 was a new Asian record.)

Elavenil Valarivan -- Women's 10m Air Rifle (Individual) - Silver

Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar, Vidarsa Vinod -- Women's 10m Air Rifle (Team) - Silver

Himanshu Dhillon -- Men's 10m Air Rifle (Individual) - Silver

Rudrankksh Patil, Himanshu Dhillon, Parth Mane -- Men's 10m Air Rifle (Team) - Silver

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Rudranksh Patil and Niraj Kumar -- Men's 50m rifle 3P team - Silver

Ashi Chouksey, Vidarsa Kochalumkal Vinod and Tilottama Sen - Women's 50m rifle 3P team - Silver

Esha Singh - Women's 25m Air Pistol - Silver

Neeru Dhanda, Manisha Keer and Aashima Ahlawat -- Women's trap team -- Silver

Rudrankksh Patil -- Men's 10m Air Rifle (Individual) -- Bronze

Raiza Dhillon, Maheshwari Chauhan and Parinaaz Dhaliwal -- Women's skeet team - Bronze (This was India's first women's skeet team medal in Asian Games history)

Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Bhavtegh Singh Gill, Mairaj Ahmad Khan -- Men's skeet team - Bronze

Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Parinaaz Dhaliwal -- Mixed skeet team - Bronze (This was India's first-ever mixed team medal in skeet shooting)

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Kabaddi

India women's team - Gold

Indian men's team - Gold

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Hockey

India women's team - Gold

India men's team - Gold

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Cricket

Indian Women's Cricket Team - Gold

Indian Men's Cricket Team - Gold

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Archery

Women's compound archery team (Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Prithika Pradeep, Taniparthi Chikitha) -- Gold

Taniparthi Chikitha and Sahil Rajesh Jadhav -- Compound archery mixed team event -- Gold

Men's compound archery team (Sahil Jadhav, Kushal Dalal and Thirumuru Ganesh Mani Ratnam) -- Gold

Ankita Bhakat, Kirti, Kumkum Anil Mohod -- Women's Team Recurve -- Gold (this is the first-ever gold medal for the women's team at the Asian Games.)

Kumkum Anil Mohod - Women's Individual Recurve - Gold (this is the first-ever gold medal for India in the event)

Dhiraj Bommadevara, Neeraj Chauhan and Yashdeep Bhoge -- men's recurve archery -- Silver

Dhiraj Bommadevara and Kumkum Anil Mohod -- mixed team recurve archery -- Silver (This was India's first ever silver in this event at the Asian Games)

Ganesh Thirumuru -- Men's compound archery individual -- Bronze

Neeraj Chauhan- Men's Individual Recurve- Bronze

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Boxing

Lovlina Borgohain -- Women's 75kg weight class -- Gold (She is the second woman after Mary Kom to win a gold medal in boxing in the Asian Games since 2014.)

Parveen Hooda - Women's 65kg weight class - Gold

Ankush Panghal - Men's 75kg weight class - Gold

Narender Berwal -- Men's +90kg weight class -- Bronze

Priya Ghanghas -- Women's 60kg weight class -- Bronze

Kapil Pokhariya -- Men's 90kg weight class -- Bronze

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Squash

Anahat Singh -- women's singles -- Silver (Became 1st Indian to win women's singles silver at Asian Games)

Abhay Singh -- men's singles -- Silver (Became only only India's second singles medallist in Asian Games history after Saurav Ghosal claimed one at Hangzhou three years ago)

Joshana Chinappa and Velavan Senthilkumar -- Mixed Doubles -- Bronze

Joshana Chinappa, Anahat Singh, Tanvi Khanna -- Women's team -- Bronze

Abhay Singh, Veer Chotrani, Velavan Senthilkumar -- Men's team -- Bronze

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Table tennis

Manush Shah, Diya Chitale -- Mixed doubles -- Bronze

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Mixed martial arts

Suchika Tariyal -- Women's Traditional MMA (60kg) - Bronze (This was India's first medal ever in MMA at an Asian Games)

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Kurash

Pincky Balhara - Women's 78kg - Bronze

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Weightlifting

Mirabai Chanu -- Women's weightlifting (49 kg) - Silver (This was India's first weightlifting medal at the Asian Games since Karnam Malleswari won silver in Bangkok in 1998)

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Soft tennis

Jay Meena -- Soft tennis (men's singles) - Bronze (This was India's first medal ever in soft tennis at an Asian Games)

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Badminton

Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, Tharun Mannepalli, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Hariharan Amsakarunan, MR Arjun, Dhruv Kapila -- Men's Badminton Team - Bronze

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Wushu

Roshibina Devi -- Women's 60kg sanda - Silver

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Rowing

Satnam Singh, Salman Khan -- Men's double sculls - Bronze (This was India's first-ever rowing medal in double sculls in Asian Games history)

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Wrestling

Aman Sehrawat -- Freestyle wrestling, men's 57kg -- Gold (This is the first time an Indian wrestler has become Asian Games champion in the men's 57 kg category)

Sujeet Kalkal -- Freestyle wrestling, men's 65kg -- Gold (This was the first gold for India in wrestling since 2018)

Antim Panghal -- wrestling, women's 53kg -- Silver

Deepak Punia -- Freestyle wrestling, men's 97kg -- Bronze

Sunil Kumar -- Greco-Roman 87kg -- Bronze

Nitesh Siwach -- Greco-Roman 97kg -- Silver

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Sailing

Prince Noble Kurisinkal, Manu Francis - Men's Skiff -- Silver

Shital Verma, Harshita Tomar - Women's Skiff -- Bronze

Nethra Kumanan - Women's Dinghy -- Bronze (This was India's first ever medal in women's dinghy event in Asian Games)

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Sepaktakraw

India men's team - Bronze (This was India's first ever medal in Men's Quadrant event at the Asian Games)

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Golf

Pranavi Urs- Women's individual- Gold

India women's team- Silver

His father is away at their native village near Gorakhpur. His mother, Paramshila Devi, remembers the lockdown. "My husband had been working as a cook at the stadium since 1997. When Covid-19 meant he lost his job, he had to support the family. He would run the vegetable cart in the morning and drive an auto in the day, while Neeraj and his brother would manage the cart in the day," she said.

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Chauhan started at the stadium where his father worked, training with the boxers before he switched to archery. He won a silver in the individual event and a bronze in the mixed team event at the 2018 nationals, in the Indian round. Months later a video of his went viral on social media, the Union Sports Ministry took note, and he was granted a Rs 5 lakh scholarship. He was selected for the SAI Centre in Sonepat, where he trained under Jitendra Chauhan.

He joined the ITBP on the sports quota in 2021, won a senior nationals medal in 2022, and was picked for the Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Turkey the same year.

"When Neeraj came to train at the SAI Centre, we had to start afresh. We had to work on scapular alignment. Then we had to work on his bow release as well as the anchor release apart from his follow through," Jitendra Chauhan said.

"Getting the scholarship as well as the job in ITBP later and training at the SAI Sonepat centre meant that I did not have to worry about the expenses or finances," Chauhan said.

Chauhan finished 20th in qualification. In the pre-quarter-finals he beat Kim Je-deok, a three-time Olympic champion (mixed team and men's team at Tokyo, men's team at Paris). He was part of the Indian men's team that took silver on Friday, and on Saturday he won his quarter-final 7-1 against Bhutan's Dorji Lam before losing to Nakanishi. Dhiraj, meanwhile, lost 3-7 to Lee Woo-seok, the Paris Olympics team gold medallist and individual bronze medallist, in the other semi-final. The Indians met for the bronze.

Chauhan led 2-0, trailed 2-4, then shot 30 in the fourth set and 29 in the fifth, five tens in his last six arrows.

"I idolise Dhiraj bhaiya and have been following his shooting style too since long," he said.

"Yes, my qualification round did not go well but then scoring a win against Kim Je-deok motivated me a lot. It gave me the belief that I can beat the best in the world. I knew that Saturday was my chance to win a medal."

"I met Korean legend and five-time Olympic gold medallist and reigning Paris champion Kim Woo-jin. It means a lot that he saw me winning the bronze."