NEW DELHI: “Aye pehelwaan kaisi hai?” – that is how Suvarna Raj remembers Neeraj Yadav speaking to her. The two para-athletes shared years of training, laughter and memories. For Suvarna, who won gold at the 2026 Asian Para Games, Neeraj was a ‘zindadil insaan’ – a person full of life who always found ways to encourage others, especially young athletes.The athletics field will no longer echo with his laughter. His fellow athletes will miss the way he waved his hands, called out to them by their familiar nicknames and brought life to every gathering.Neeraj, a three-time Asian Para Games gold medallist, was found dead in Delhi on Tuesday night. Preliminary reports suggested that he may have consumed poison, though the circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. His body was taken to Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital for a postmortem examination, with a police investigation underway.For those who trained with him, he was a friend, a fellow athlete, an elder brother and a source of encouragement. The news of his death left the para-athletics community in shock.Chief coach S Satyanarayana, who was close to Neeraj, struggled to come to terms with the loss.“Neeraj has died by suicide. I was close to him. He was a very good human being. His body is at GTB Hospital. They are yet to hand over the body to us. Tough time for all of us,” Satyanarayana told TimesofIndia.com.
‘He was my roommate’
For Navdeep Singh, India’s Paris Paralympics gold medallist in para-javelin and a bronze medallist at the 2026 Asian Para Games, Neeraj was more than a fellow athlete. He was an elder-brother figure with whom he had shared rooms during training camps and competitions.
He was asleep when his phone rang in the early hours of Wednesday. It was fellow para-javelin thrower and Paralympic champion Sumit Antil, who asked him to rush to the hospital and informed him about Neeraj.Navdeep rushed to GTB Hospital, where he learnt that Neeraj had died. The athlete’s body was subsequently taken for a postmortem examination as authorities began investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.Recalling their time together, Navdeep said they had shared a room during training in Bengaluru in 2023. They had also travelled together for competitions, including the 2022 IWAS World Games in Portugal.“We were roommates for a long time. We shared a room in Bengaluru when we were training there throughout 2023. Whenever we travelled for competitions, we stayed together. We had also gone to Portugal for the IWAS World Games in 2022,” Navdeep recalled.“We trained together for a long time, from 2021 to 2023. We were part of the same group.”What Navdeep remembers most about Neeraj is his innocence and playful nature. Although Neeraj was older, the two shared an easy friendship filled with jokes and laughter.“He was innocent and had a great sense of humour. He was much older than me, but we never felt that age difference. He would jokingly call me ‘bhai saab’ and use words for me that people usually use for someone older. We were like people of the same age when we were together. We used to joke around a lot and spend a lot of time together. There are so many memories that it is difficult to choose just one or two,” Navdeep said.“We used to go out together whenever either of us had some work. Sometimes we would go to the market for juice or watch movies. He was very fond of films, and I also love watching them. We spent a lot of time together and shared many memories,” he said.
‘A zindadil insaan’
Suvarna had known Neeraj since the early years of her athletics career. She began training around 2016-17, and the two practised together before travelling to the 2018 Asian Para Games.Even shortly before leaving for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games in Japan, Suvarna was in touch with him. She needed a discus, and Neeraj had offered to help arrange one.
She did not know that their conversation would be among their last.“I had spoken to him two days before I left. I needed a discus, and he said he would try to arrange one for me. I left two days later, and we did not speak again,” Suvarna recalled.Neeraj was in Sonipat at the time and had told her that he would try to arrange the equipment.“I had only two days left before leaving. He was in Sonipat and said he would try to arrange it. Now, I keep wondering what happened and why things turned out this way. It is difficult to understand because he was such a strong person,” she said.Suvarna also remembered the way Neeraj spoke to people. His familiar way of addressing her as “pehelwaan” had become a part of their friendship.“We practised together from the time I started my athletics career around 2016-17. We also went to Asia together in 2018. I liked the way he spoke. He had his own style and would always call me ‘pehelwaan’. That was something he said regularly,” she said.“I still cannot come to terms with what has happened. Honestly, it feels as if there is something more to the story and that we are not hearing everything. It is still very difficult for me to believe,” Suvarna said.
The athlete who encouraged others
Neeraj competed in the F55 category and was serving a four-year suspension after testing positive for a banned substance, which ruled him out of the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya. He was also stripped of the javelin and discus gold medals he had won at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Para Games. The loss of those medals also meant the loss of the associated government cash reward and the prospect of a government job.Diagnosed with post-polio residual paralysis at the age of seven, Neeraj initially took up wheelchair tennis before moving to para-athletics.He won javelin gold at the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta with an Asian-record throw of 29.84 metres. At the 2023 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, he won gold in both the javelin and discus. Those medals were subsequently stripped following his doping case.For Suvarna, however, it is difficult to reconcile the circumstances of Neeraj’s death with the encouragement he continued to offer other athletes. She recalled how he had recently motivated another athlete, Anmol, urging him not to give up and to work towards a comeback.“He was such a strong person and always motivated others. We have an athlete named Anmol, whom Neeraj encouraged just three or four days ago. He motivated Anmol so much that he felt inspired to keep going,” Suvarna said.“Neeraj would tell him not to give up and would encourage him to make a comeback. He would say, ‘Keep doing well. Work hard. Do this, do that.’ He also reminded Anmol that I had won a medal at the age of 44. And then, suddenly, we received this news.”Suvarna said Neeraj had also spoken about returning to competition in 2028. That conversation has made his death even harder for her to understand.“We had never heard that he was depressed because of his sport. I spoke to Anmol early this morning, and he told me that Neeraj had been talking about 2028. He was saying, ‘Just wait and see what I do in 2028, how I make my comeback. Everyone will remember that comeback.’ He was speaking like this only recently,” she added.
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