Pakistan very rarely gets a chance to celebrate unabashedly – across all aisles and without any ifs and buts. Thursday night was one such rare occasion, all thanks to the superhero Arshad Nadeem who won Pakistan its first-ever individual athlete gold in the Olympics. With this, Arshad Nadeem has ended two major droughts literally singlehandedly. His 92.97 metre javelin throw set a new Olympic record and brought an Olympic medal back to the country for the first time since the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. More importantly, he won the country’s first Olympic gold medal since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. In doing so, he has become the first Pakistani to top the podium in an individual sport at the Olympics. The magnitude of Arshad’s efforts cannot be limited to the national level alone. His brilliant throw made him only the second South Asian man to register a podium finish in track and field at the Olympics, the first being Indian Olympian Neeraj Chopra who won gold in the javelin throw at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and is considered by many to be Arshad’s main rival. On the global level, Arshad’s 92.97-metre effort stands as the sixth-longest javelin throw ever.
Few among even the most optimistic Pakistanis could have predicted this outcome. We live in a country of over 240 million people that has only seen top-level success in cricket during the lifetimes of most Pakistanis around today. Though hockey and squash were once dominated by Pakistan, the young people who make up the majority of this nation came too late for these glory days. Being such a young country places some unique pressures on Pakistani society. For one, it is important to generate a fresh batch of new heroes that young Pakistanis can look up to. Outside of cricket, these heroes have been hard to find over the last three decades or so. And even when it comes to the one sport the country has been any good at, performance can be highly erratic. Then there is the fact that Pakistanis get little support from the state and have to work extra hard to do what many in more privileged countries take for granted. Doing great things under these circumstances is not exactly easy. What this results in is a nation largely bereft of people to idealize.
During the 2020 Olympics, Arshad Nadeem became the first ever Pakistani athlete to qualify for a track-and-field event and the first to reach the finals of such an event. Arshad got little support from the government throughout his journey and did not even have a ground to practise in. Under these circumstances, reaching the finals alone was a momentous achievement. Though he fell just short of reaching the podium, his performance catapulted him to national prominence in Pakistan. His place as a hero in a nation starved of them was arguably secure. But Arshad did not rest on these laurels and while the country has remained mired in the same old problems between 2021 and 2024, Arshad has taken a momentous leap forward. In fact, Arshad Nadeem in many ways probably epitomizes what being a Pakistani means: exhausted, deprived of top-class facilities, and with no backing of an indifferent state – and yet determined to chase his/her dreams and passion. He has – on his own – smashed all expectations at home and abroad, and become the only Pakistani to stand above everyone else in the world at what he does. He is now the greatest javelin thrower the Olympics has seen to date. He is the hero Pakistan desperately needed, though whether we deserve him is debatable given the way the state has treated our athletes. The sight of an emotional Arshad prostrating on the field with photojournalists from all over the world encircling him should be an image we remember forever. This hero needs all the respect, attention, and commendation the state has to offer. Let’s hope he is rightfully championed as Pakistan’s greatest sports figure this century.