Olympic gold journey: Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem wins praise from India

It seems that Pakistan javelin Olympic gold-medallist Arshad Nadeem continues to remain a beacon of inspiration and resilience as the athlete's sporting journey has now won praise, recognition from neighbouring India.

Nadeem, who beat India's Neeraj Chopra in the javelin event last year at the Olympics, has now been hailed for his resilience and perseverance by none other than India's own Olympic Instagram account.

"Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up," reads the caption of a post on India's official Olympic account on Instagram, which shared a motivational video showcasing Nadeem's journey from the Tokyo Olympics 2020 to last year's glory.

The video shows the Pakistani athlete's performance in the javelin throw event at the Tokyo Olympics, which took place in 2021, where he managed to qualify for the final but missed out on winning any medal for the country.

India's Chopra, back then, came in first with a score of 87.58m to win a gold, in a first for the country in the athletics category.

In the said Instagram post, Nadeem is seen gutted after his Tokyo Olympic heartbreak, but then it switches to the unforgettable scenes from the Paris 2024 Olympics showing the jubilant and evidently emotional Pakistani athlete raising his arms and accepting the gold medal courtesy of his 92.97-metre massive throw — which also created a new Olympic record.

The post acknowledges and hails Nadeem for not giving up on his dreams and showing exceptional resilience and perseverance to stay true to his objective until he finally managed to achieve it last year.

The video is to be taken against the background that the Pakistani athlete lacked essential support and infrastructure, and didn't even have a ground to practice back when he was preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.

Nevertheless, despite having offers from various countries to move abroad and represent them instead, Nadeem chose to wear the Pakistani flag and went on to not only represent Pakistan at the Paris Olympics 2024 but also win gold for the nation.