Pakistan celebrates Arshad Nadeem’s history-making Olympic gold

Arshad Nadeem’s Olympic gold was celebrated with dancing and sweets in his small village in Pakistan after he broke the Olympic javelin record and won his country’s first ever medal in track and field .

“Arshad has done something that the world calls impossible. He not only earned the gold medal but made history. We are proud of him,” his brother, Mohammad Azeem, told local media.

Nadeem’s throw of 92.97m broke the Olympic record and was Pakistan’s first gold since the 1984 Los Angeles Games, when it won the men’s hockey. The last individual medal – a bronze – was won in Seoul in 1988 in boxing. “It’s an amazing feeling … to win Olympic gold. I’m thankful to Allah for giving me the fruit of my labour and to all the people back home who prayed for me. I’ll try to do even better next time around,” he told reporters in Paris.

Many in Pakistan have noted Nadeem’s humble beginnings and the role of family in supporting his athletic prowess. His gym lacks air conditioning and he avoids the most intense heat of the day by training in the morning and evenings.

Nadeem, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, started as an athlete with no support from the government. As he began winning medals in Pakistan and globally, the Pakistani authorities stepped in to sponsor his medical trips to the UK. Nadeem pays for part of the trip while the Athletics Federation of Pakistan and the Pakistan Sports Board finance the rest.

Outside his village in Punjab province, about 186 miles south-west of Lahore, his win was eagerly shared on social media across Pakistan.

The prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, congratulated Nadeem on X alongside a picture of himself handing over a cheque for 1m rupees – although some replies said government support had been lacking, amid competing claims to take credit for Nadeem’s success.

Abbas Nasir, a columnist and former editor at the largest English daily, Dawn, tweeted: “A bricklayer’s son from a small village in Punjab brings Gold glory to Pakistan, all on his own. Largely unsupported. What an achievement.”

Nadeem credits his brother and father for supporting him in the early days of his sporting career to follow his dreams. He also worked at the sports department of the Water and Power Development Authority, a government-owned public utility that pays him a monthly retainer.

In an interview with Lok Sujag , a local media outlet, in 2020 Nadeem compared his situation with that of cricketers and showed his training conditions in a local school ground. “I have seen many sportsmen who have left sports and have started working to find [make] ends meet,” he said. “They told me you are a big star, you did not get anything from the government.”