The Journey of Pakistan’s Star and Olympic Medal Hope Arshad Nadeem
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
With the 2024 Olympic Javelin throw event just under a week away, Pakistan’s hope of ending their 32-year drought of an Olympic medal will be in focus as Arshad Nadeem will take to the field of the famed Stade De France on 6th August for the qualification round and provided all goes well, the 8th of August for the 2024 Olympic javelin throw final.
Hailing from Mian Channu, Arshad Nadeem has gone through quite an arduous road of trials and tribulations in a country that has sadly developed quite a pattern of undervaluing and over-expecting athletes it barely supports.
Despite overcoming the tough odds of managing to develop a top-level skill set in a hideously semi-pro and inadequate sporting culture, Arshad’s issues of lack of constant and proper support were seemingly unending even as he brought home gold medals from the 2022 Commonwealth and Islamic Solidarity Games as well as a silver at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, life as a sportsman has been quite often troublesome for the first South Asian to achieve a throw over 90 meters.
One can tell quite a few things by simply observing the acute contrast between him and the man he has developed a sporting kinship with; reigning Olympic champion, India’s Neeraj Chopra. At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, both shared the podium with Neeraj claiming gold.
The stark difference between how the two got to where they were is simply shocking.
While Neeraj Chopra trained in some of the best conditions that could be provided to him as well as under the watchful eye of legendary German athlete turned coach Uwe Hohn, Arshad Nadeem on the other hand, was nursing a knee and elbow injury he suffered which can only be attributed to sheer negligence by the concerned authorities. Arshad’s training as well was initially done all on his own in downright awful conditions which makes his story all the more unbelievable.
The sustained spotlight on Arshad Nadeem has finally woken up some people in influential quarters, with the Athletics Federation of Pakistan arranging for his unfortunate injury to be treated at the Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital in the UK, as well as his recent training being supported by the PSL franchise Multan Sultans, but also being sent to South Africa to train and France to participate in the 2024 Diamond League Meet in Paris (where he finished fourth) as preparation for the Games in Paris.
Pakistan now waits with bated breath, but regardless of what happens, Arshad Nadeem will remain a national hero.
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
