A golden buffalo
THE Summer Olympics 2024 are over. The victors have returned to savour their spoils, the vanquished to count their losses.
These Olympics had 10,714 athletes competing before a worldwide audience of 30.6 million viewers — truly a global spectator sport.
None but Olympians know the price they have had to pay — for full-time training, coaching, medical, travel and other costs, apart from being deprived of a regular income.
The International Olympic Committee does not grant any awards beyond the medals themselves. It believes that the spirit of the Olympics is enough: “It is not to win but to take part; it is not the triumph but the struggle.”
Before the Paris Olympics began, the World Athletics Federation announced that $2.4m ($50,000 each) would be given to each gold medallist in the 48 athletic events.
Amid all the flattery, the Olympian has retained his sense of humour.
National Olympic committees supplement this with incentives to their own nationals. Hong Kong topped the list with $768,000. (It won two golds.) Singapore offered $745,000, but that was clearly not enough. It won only one bronze. The lowest incentive ($13,000) came from Australia, whose athletes won 18 golds. But as one Olympian put it: “A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”
Each country honours its Olympians in different ways — some with victory parades, others with cash rewards, a few with national awards. Far-sighted nations support their athletes on their way up Mount Olympus. The myopic wait until they have succeeded, and then applaud them on the way down.
Pakistan’s Olympian Arshad Nadeem has been smothered with garlands and suffocated with banquets ever since his triumphant return. The cornucopia of gifts emptied upon him have included cash of Rs280m, plus cars and other gifts.
In Punjab, the governor gave him cash of Rs2m and a car. The chief minister Punjab presented a cheque of Rs100m and the key to a Honda Civic car ‘92.97’. The chief minister also presented Nadeem’s coach Salman I. Butt with a cheque of Rs5m.
In Sindh, the chief minister awarded Nadeem Rs50m. The Karachi mayor announced a Rs50m cash award for Nadeem and promised to establish an athletics academy named after the Olympian. The Sindh sports minister gave a cheque, both from his department and personal funds. The local government minister declared that an important road in Karachi would be named after Arshad Nadeem. The planning and development minister gifted a car to Arshad Nadeem’s mother.
Army Chief General Asim Munir announced the allotment of a residential plot at DHA Multan (once a huge mango orchard).
Wapda has awarded Rs1m to Nadeem while his employer Lesco has proposed his promotion to the 19th grade. And President Zardari promised to award him the country’s highest civilian honour — the Hilal-i-Imtiaz.
It is proposed to grant the Sitara-i-Imtiaz to Salman Butt (Nadeem’s coach), and also to Nadeem’s mother. While her efforts, like Nadeem’s, were a solo achievement, some might cavil whether a SI award should be distributed so freely. They might say it demeans its stature. Apart, that is, from it being regarded as a rebuke to shared parenthood. Surely, Nadeem’s father Muhammad Arshad deserves acknowledgement too. He supported his son from his modest, honest earnings for 36 years as a construction labourer.
Nadeem has asked the government for a modern track and field stadium and a university for women in his hometown — Mian Channu.
In all this maelstrom of flattery, Nadeem has retained his sense of humour. When asked about the buffalo gifted to him by his father-in-law, Nadeem replied: “I was a bit surprised [.] I wondered since my father-in-law is a very rich person and has a lot of land … if only he had given me four to five acres of farmland instead of the buffalo”.
The rustic father-in-law may feel miffed. Having given Nadeem first his daughter and now a healthy buffalo, in Mian Channu that is regarded as largesse enough.
Hopefully, all the promises made to Arshad Nadeem will be honoured. He should heed the advice of the late Prince Philip who had experience in such matters.
Prince Philip visited Lahore in the 1990s to raise funds for the World Wildlife Fund (of which he was president). He attended an auction of paintings by local artists. As soon as the auction ended, he took the Pakistani auctioneer aside and advised him to collect the money before the successful bidders left the event. “Be quick. They tend to change their minds once they have had their photographs taken with me.”
The ancient Greeks rewarded their victorious Olympians with a crown woven from fresh laurel leaves. They found it cheaper than cash, and handy the morning after as fodder for the buffalo.
The writer is an author.
Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2024