When Pakistan's national sports board was deciding who to finance among the seven athletes bound for the Paris Olympics, only Arshad Nadeem and his coach were deemed good enough for funds. Nadeem and his coach Salman Fayyaz Butt were the lucky ones to have their air tickets financed by PSB (Pakistan Sports Board). On Thursday, the 27-year-old from Khanewal village in the Punjab region repaid the faith with an Olympic record and the country's first individual gold at the biggest sporting stage on the planet.
It has been a tale of quiet resolve for Nadeem, whose family struggled to even buy food of their choice. The ace javelin thrower was the third of seven siblings with their father being a construction worker. Given the father was the sole breadwinner, the family would get to eat meat only once a year, during Eid al-Adha, revealed a report in Al Jazeera quoting his older brother Shahid Azeem.
On early Friday (IST), the 6'3" man certainly accumulated the entire struggle of his life to send the spear to 92.97m in a jaw-dropping performance. It also helped Nadeem shatter the previous Olympic record of 90.57m and boss a field that also featured his good friend but fierce rival from across the border Neeraj Chopra.
The defending champion Indian had to be content with a silver medal this time despite a season's best performance of 89.45m. The 26-year-old is yet to cross the 90m mark in his career and that seems to be now playing on his mind in competitions.
While Chopra was among the most well-looked-after athletes in the field, Nadeem had seen a time when he didn't have the funds to even buy a javelin for himself.
"People have no idea how Arshad got to this place today. How his fellow villagers and relatives used to donate money so that he could travel to other cities for his training and events in his early days," his father Muhammad Ashraf told PTI after his qualification to the Olympics finals on Tuesday.
Pakistan sent a total of seven athletes to Paris and six of them failed to qualify for the finals of their respective events.
Right after Nadeem qualified for the finals for the second successive Olympics, there was a celebration at his house where his parents, brothers, wife two children, and fellow villagers raised slogans of 'Pakistan Zindabad'. His parents also distributed sweets.
"If my son can bring home an Olympic medal for Pakistan it would be the proudest moment for us and everyone in this village," his father had said.
Well, he could now throw the biggest party of his life after what transpired in the French capital.
Nadeem has been doing well for a long time. He won a silver medal at the World Championship last year and also a gold in the Commonwealth Games 2022 with a 90.18m throw.
On Tuesday he qualified for the finals with a throw of 86.59m, bested by Chopra who produced a massive throw of 89.34 to qualify first.
The rivalry and camaraderie of Chopra and Nadeem is well documented. In the last Olympics in Tokyo, the Indian star won gold for his country while Nadeem finished fifth in the final standings.
A few months back when Arshad appealed to authorities to replace his old javelin with a new one for his training, Chopra promptly supported Nadeem's case on social media.
Despite his career being hit by elbow, knee, and back problems and being burdened by the lack of top facilities and equipment available to athletes from other countries, Nadeem has already achieved a lot by getting the Pakistani people to closely follow his feats instead of cricket.
(With PTI Inputs)
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