As a child, Arshad trained alone in the fields of his small village in Pakistan, throwing a javelin made of eucalyptus branches. Today, at 27, Arshad Nadeem has just become a gold medalist at the Paris Olympic Games. A first in the history of Pakistan, which had not won an Olympic medal for 32 years. So naturally, the entire country was waiting for the return of its “hero”.
Upon his arrival at Lahore airport on August 11, Arshad was greeted by hundreds of supporters who cheered his name. “We are here to welcome our national hero. We want to celebrate him fully,” Sohail Khan happily shared. Because Arshad did not just win gold. Three days earlier, on August 8, when he threw his javelin 92.97 m in a packed Stade de France, he also broke the Olympic record.
A whole village behind the “hero”
But what is even more extraordinary than his victory is the journey Arshad has taken to achieve it. Despite his high level in the discipline, Arshad had been training for years with the same old javelin and had to appeal for help from the government a few months before the Paris Games to replace it. In the past, his family and the inhabitants of his village have sometimes even had to chip in to help finance his athletic career.
“I salute Arshad Nadeem who won a gold medal in the Olympics and gave this gift to the nation on the occasion of Independence Day celebrations,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on the country’s 77th Independence Day on August 14, where a tribute to Arshad Nadeem was paid on the occasion.
