Jevelin superstar Arshad Nadeem’s gold medal and Olympic record were the best gifts for the Pakistani nation on the eve of its Independence Day. After a drought of 32 years, Arshad’s gold acted as a healing balm for Pakistanis troubled by economic hardships and a disappointing performance in other sports. Seeing Pakistan’s flag hoisted high and the packed stadium resound with the country’s national anthem was a moment of recognition and pride that filled our hearts. The country last won a bronze in men’s field hockey at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
The federal and provincial governments, sports bodies, public officials and private citizens have showered Arshad with rewards and gifts. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz visited his hometown Mian Channu and gifted him Rs100 million and a Honda Civic car with a unique number plate bearing 92.97 – the number of his Olympics record. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif awarded him Rs150 million and announced the establishment of a Rs1 billion sports endowment fund at a ceremony in Islamabad in his honour. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur pledged Rs5 million, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah awarded him Rs2 million and Rs50 million respectively, while President Asif Ali Zardari nominated him for Pakistan’s second-highest civil award, Hilal-e-Imtiaz.
Arshad’s journey from Mian Channu, a small village in Pakistan’s Punjab, to the pinnacle of world athletics is a story of single-minded focus and extraordinary talent that was honed by his coaches over the years to make him a world-class athlete. Nobody could guess this lanky boy would one day become a symbol of national pride.
Arshad’s journey from Mian Channu, a small village in Pakistan’s Punjab, to the pinnacle of world athletics is a story of single-minded focus and extraordinary talent that was honed by his coaches over the years to make him a world-class athlete.
Third among eight siblings, Arshad showed athletic prowess from the beginning. During a school event, he was spotted by Rasheed Ahmad Saqi, a former athlete, who mentored talented sportsmen in his district. Under Saqi’s guidance, he started participating in area sports events. Like most Pakistanis, Arshad was first attracted to cricket, where he helped his team win many tournaments.
Arshad’s elder brothers, themselves athletes at the division level, realised the difficulties ahead in making a cricket career, where competition was stiff and success depended on the collective performance of all players. They advised him to focus on athletics instead. Saying goodbye to cricket, he tried his hands at various games such as shot put, hammer throw, and discus throw in addition to javelin throw. He also took part in the long jump, high jump, triple jump and 100 and 200-metre races at local competitions.
Arshad participated in the Punjab International Sports Festival in 2012 initiated by the PML-N government under Mian Shehbaz Sharif and again in the 2014 edition and won medals in several games, though his best performance remained in javelin. “This is when I made a serious start and played at the provincial level,” he told in an interview with Hamid Mir on Geo TV. By this time, his mentor Rasheed Ahmad Saqi and family members convinced him to choose one sport, javelin, and concentrate on its training.
“When I started the game, I secured a bamboo stem and went to a local carpenter to get shaved into the shape of a javelin. We did not have a ground in our area, so I went to the nearby primary school and practised in its ground,” he said in a podcast with Roha Nadeem on the PTCL’s YouTube channel.
In 2015, Arshad participated in trials at the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) sports department but his throw was not long enough to secure him a position. Arshad asked WAPDA to give him a second chance in a month. In the second trial, his throw had improved from 56m to 65m, securing him accolades, a job in the department and some financial security. While playing for WAPDA, his game attracted attention at the national level and soon he got a chance to represent Pakistan at international competitions. In 2016, he participated in the South Asian Games, his first international event, in Guwahati, India, where he met India’s ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, the 2020 Olympic champion, who later became his friend.
Under the able guidance of his coach Fayaz Hussain Bukhari, he won medals at the South Asian Games, Asian Junior Athletics Championships and Islamic Solidarity Games from 2015 to 2019. In the 2019 South Asian Games in Kathmandu, Nepal, he won gold and directly qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, the first in history for a Pakistani athlete. At Tokyo, he ranked fifth in the competition, which was a big surprise for Pakistanis who were unaware of his arduous journey until then.
In a 17 July 2020 news report by Sujag, he can be seen walking the streets of his village and practising his game in a local school ground. In the report, he complained about a lack of adequate facilities and equipment. Some have argued that had he received proper support from the government then, he may have won a medal in the 2020 Olympic Games. In another video, wearing a green blazer, he can be seen pleading with Prime Minister Imran Khan to reverse his decision to ban departmental sports, which has traditionally been a pipeline for Pakistan’s sports talent. Despite orders from the top, government departments resisted the move and refused to dismantle their sports teams. The ban was reversed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in August 2022.
After Tokyo Olympics, Arshad was assigned a new coach, Salman Iqbal Butt, who worked with Pakistan Athletics Federation, Pakistan Sports Board, Punjab Sports Board and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Ali Sher Bajwa to prepare a training programme and manage his injuries. Talking to Kashif Abbassi in an interview on the ARY news channel, Dr Bajwa explained what went into preparing him for the throw that broke the Olympic record. “A very sophisticated team has been working with him for a few years,” he said.
Dr Bajwa said that Arshad’s team gave him the goal of setting an Olympic record. “It’s called single-minded focus, creating stress, creating an environment in which the player then strives, tries to do more and more” and acts like a loaded spring on the day of the competition. Keeping the player comfortable in this whole process is equally important to prevent him from collapsing, in which his coach Salman Iqbal Butt played a crucial role, he said.
Speaking about Arshad’s unique training, Dr Bajwa said, “We have given more importance to agility, speed and strength and reduced the throwing volume … and I think the programme [we developed] clicked with him,” adding that over the years his performance increased little by little and there is still more room for it.
After Tokyo, Arshad won gold and broke the Commonwealth Games record with a 90.18m throw, his career’s best. He won gold at the Islamic Solidarity Games also breaking the games’ record. He won silver at the World Athletics Championship, a first in the history of Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Sports Board, a cumulative amount of Rs22 million was given to Arshad as prize money for his various victories from 2021 to 2024 until the Olympics. The government also paid for the treatment of his injuries abroad. Arshad also received corporate sponsorships from various companies.
When he talks about his Olympic success, Arshad credits it to his family’s and countrymen’s prayers. In his interviews, he profusely thanks Allah for the respect and admiration he receives from the people, who thronged the airport at midnight to receive him after his Olympic victory and joined his convoy until he reached his hometown 284 km away.
What Arshad’s team achieved was no small feat given that Pakistan does not have a single world-class athletics facility. He did not own a world-class javelin until the newly inducted PML-N government intervened and gave him Rs2.5 million for this purpose in March 2024, and later another Rs1 million in May.
The final credit for his victory goes to Arshad Nadeem himself, who had the discipline and single-minded focus to achieve the best.
