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Arshad Nadeem has watched Pakistan’s sports system crumble around him and still lifted it to unimaginable heights.
Nadeem is his country’s first Olympic champion in 40 years, winning gold in the men’s javelin with an Olympic record.
Pakistan last won an Olympic title in men’s field hockey at LA 1984, dominating that sport before astroturf replaced grass and they fell away.
That is emblematic of the withering of Pakistan’s sporting infrastructure and the Games has shown just how far they have fallen behind - until now.
Nadeem trains at Punjab University in facilities that Team GB’s stars would doubtless turn their nose up at. You won’t find a performance lifestyle consultant within miles: just lumpy punching bags and cycling machines on the verge of collapse. Motivational messages might adorn the walls of his gym, instead paint slowly peels away.
When he is throwing javelins in training, Nadeem waits for his brother Aleem to pick them out of the ground and carry them back. Sometimes, facilities are not even available.
“If you were to compare what we have and what the others have, we’re operating on a shoestring budget,” says Nadeem’s coach Salman Iqbal.
“We try to get a field, sometimes we get it, sometimes we don’t. This is what we’re lacking.”
We can marvel then at the fact that in Tokyo, Nadeem became the first Pakistani to qualify for the final of any track and field event in the history of the Olympics, finishing fifth.
He did the same at the 2022 World Championships and won silver at the 2023 Worlds in Budapest, Pakistan’s first-ever world medal.
Nadeem’s preferred approach is to build through the competition and strategically save his best for the sixth and final round, as he did in striking gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
In Paris, he sensed his moment in the second round as he unfurled a phenomenal 92.97m hurl. It shattered the Olympic record by more than two metres and he proved it was no fluke by going out to 91.79 in the final round, as per his modus operandi.
Nadeem sank to his knees after the final throw, unable to contain his emotion, fully aware of the significance of what he had just achieved.
Some in his country have tried to manufacture the feeling that Nadeem thrives in such a no-frills environment and would not have it any other way.
The man himself feels differently and this gold could well come as close as anything to sparking change in how Pakistan approaches big sport.
“I’ve reached where I have despite having no access to state-of-art grounds or training facilities,” said Nadeem.
“But in this day and age, you have to provide world class facilities to develop athletes as the competition is getting tougher and tougher. You can’t produce another Arshad without giving them those facilities.”
Nadeem’s story is remarkable and add in the fact that his closest competitor is Indian and you have a proper sporting blockbuster.
In Tokyo, Neeraj Chopra was crowned India’s first-ever Olympic champion in athletics. The 26-year-old’s social media following rose as steeply as the trajectory of one of the spears he throws, climbing into the millions, as he became a national treasure whose every move is painstakingly documented.
Chopra ripped 89.45m in the second round at Stade de France and earned silver.
The 26-year-old based himself at the high-performance centre in Loughborough in 2023, eschewing what his own country can offer in favour of something rather more state-of-the-art. It is in fact Nadeem’s homespun approach that has paid off with Olympic gold.
The symbolism of those two countries sharing the top two steps of the Olympic podium won’t be lost on anyone, including the athletes themselves.
“It gives me immense joy that there are only two of us from South Asia, myself and Neeraj, who are performing on the world stage along with the other players who compete with Neeraj,” Nadeem says.
“I hope that we continue to perform for our respective countries and make the names of our countries shine bright globally.”
Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics
