Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra displaced Usain Bolt on the list of the most written-about athletes. Usain Bolt is still the world record holder in the 100m and 200m despite retiring in 2017 and for the first time in years, he has failed to top the list.
Neeraj had a brilliant year and finished runner-up in the world championships in Eugene. He was the second Indian to win a global medal after Anju Bobby George’s bronze in the women’s long jump in 2003. Neeraj was the first athlete from India to win the Diamond League final in the javelin.
Chopra leads the way with 812 articles ahead of a troika of Jamaican women sprint star, Elaine Thompson-Herah, with 751 articles, world 100m champion Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce (698) and world 200m champion Shericka Jackson (679), with Bolt still featuring in 574 articles.
World Athletics mentioned these figures from the media analysis company Unicepta.
The federation’s president Sebastian Coe said,
“It is an interesting one. For the first time this year, Usain Bolt has not led the list of the most written about athletes of the year,”
“looks and feels very different to me”.
