Arshad Nadeem’s hometown erupted into rapturous celebrations after he clinched Pakistan’s first Olympic medal in athletics, winning gold in the men’s javelin and knocking defending champion Neeraj Chopra of India into second place.

Arshad’s triumph on Thursday in Paris is all the more impressive for a man born and raised in a mud-brick house in an impoverished corner of rural Pakistan and forced as a young man to train in local wheat fields with homemade javelins.

The news of his victory, which reached Pakistan late at night, thrilled his compatriots, drawing congratulatory messages from the nation’s leaders and prompting jubilant dancing and fireworks in his normally sleepy home village of Mian Channu.

“We have not been able to sleep since last night because relatives, the media, friends, fans and state functionaries are constantly visiting us to congratulate the family,” his oldest brother Shahid Nadeem told Reuters on Friday.

Pakistan mostly channels its limited funding for sports into team games such as cricket and hockey.

Arshad, who compared his Olympic clash with Chopra to the two nations’ legendary rivalry in cricket, has previously said it is challenging being a non-cricket athlete in Pakistan, where resources and facilities for his sport are scarce.

But now his record-breaking 92.97-metre javelin throw in Paris has earned Pakistan its first Olympic medal since the 1992 Barcelona Games and its first gold medal since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

“This gold medal is a gift from me to the entire nation on the occasion of Independence Day (on August 14),” Arshad said in a post on social media platform X.

Arshad will receive a hero’s welcome when he returns to Pakistan, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif likely to welcome him home, Mohammad Shafiq, head of Pakistan’s Olympic Commission, told Reuters from Paris.

Humble Origins

Arshad, 27, married with two children, comes from a poor family of eight children in Punjab’s Khanewal, where he first began to dream of Olympic greatness.

His district barely had reliable water and electricity supplies, let alone proper sports facilities for him to train.

“Initially, we improvised homemade javelins by using long eucalyptus branches with iron tips on their ends. The fields in our village served as our training ground,” his brother Shahid said.

“We developed our own weight training apparatus by using iron rods, canisters of oil and concrete.”

The situation improved when Arshad joined the local power utility Wapda, which had its own sports facilities.

Even so, Arshad had still been training with substandard javelins just months before the Paris Olympics, until a last-minute appeal saw the government step in to help, his mother Razia Parveen told Reuters by phone.

“The government sponsored javelins and other facilities for him. He brought back three new international standard javelins from South Africa,” she said.

“I am very happy for Arshad and Pakistan… I offered prayers to thank God immediately after his victory,” she said from their home, which houses a gym built by Arshad and his brothers and featuring gear such as iron rods and canisters filled with cement.

Shahid Nadeem said all four brothers are sportsmen.

“My two younger brothers and I abandoned our passion and started jobs to support the family,” he added.

However, Arshad’s decision to stick with his passion seems set to change the family’s fortunes.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has announced a cash prize of Rs100 million ($359,195) as a reward for what she said was his “hard work”.

The Sindh government, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said, has also announced Rs50m for the national hero. Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider Khan pledged a cash reward of Rs2m while his Sindh counterpart Kamran Tessori vowed Rs1m.

“Arshad is living proof that there’s nothing you can’t accomplish when you dream big, train hard, and never give up,” said the US Embassy in Islamabad in a post on X.

Header image: Pakistan’s Olympics gold medallist Arshad Nadeem (centre) poses on the podium at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France on Aug 9, 2024.— AFP