Ace badminton player Saina Nehwal recently confessed that she did not know that javelin was an Olympic sport until Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal in 2021, implying that it is nearly impossible to know about other sports when one is deeply engrossed in their sport.
“When Neeraj won, that is when I got to know about athletics has got this game too. You’ll gain knowledge only when you see it, right? If you don’t see, how will you know? I did not know about javelin throw. Frankly, I didn’t know,” Nehwal told journalist Shubhankar Mishra in an interview.
“Because athletics has many sports. I got to know only when the results came, that is when I knew. I am sure people didn’t know about badminton. I did not know who Prakash sir is…”
Nehal, who represented India at the Olympics thrice and won a bronze medal in 2012, said it is more than enough if one is perfect in their own field.
“It’s not that you don’t want to know, but you’re so busy in your own field, how much time do you get deep into something else. If not you’ll have to Google everything non-stop. If you’re perfect in your own field, that’s more than enough,” she said.
Nehwal’s remarks quicky went viral on social media, with people starting to slam her for being unaware that javelin was an event in the Olympics.
“Kangana Ranaut of sports,” many users said, comparing her to the actor-turned-politician.
“Very surprising that a sportsperson of Saina Nehwal’s calibre should feign ignorance about javelin event,” X user Sylvia Francis said.
“Entire India only knew Saina Nehwal because her name sounded similar to tennis sensation Sania Mirza,” another user, Vinay Kumar Dokania, said.
Nehwal, a recipient of the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, joined the BJP in 2020.
