Olympics 2024 | Arshad Nadeem: Cricket’s loss is athletics’ gain

The new Olympic javelin throw champion had aspired to wanted to become a cricketer when he was a kid.

Paris: Pakistan, just like India, adores its cricketers. It’s the undisputed number one sport there, just like our country. Most youngsters, especially those from modest backgrounds, aspire to become a cricketer before thinking about changing lanes. Yes hockey, given its rich history and success, and squash are admired but they come nowhere close to the financial security cricket can provide. 

Arshad Nadeem, who became the toast of the sporting world on Thursday when he won the javelin throw gold at the Paris Games in spectacular fashion with a mighty throw of 92.97 metres at the Stade de France, too wanted to become a cricketer when he was a kid. 

Born to a construction worker in Mian Channu, a small village in Khanewal district in Punjab province, the naturally strongly built Nadeem targeted becoming a fast bowler, something which Pakistan is famous for. Third-oldest among eight siblings, the 27-year-old did compete in several events like football, badminton and athletics but cricket was his main priority.

He pursued that goal ambitiously before things took a sudden change around a decade ago. During a school sports meet, coach Rasheed Ahmad Saqi spotted Nadeem and instantly realised he could be crafted into an elite javelin-thrower. Obviously, even Nadeem couldn’t believe what Saqi was saying.

His village barely had a decent cricket ground, let alone an athletics venue. The country itself had very little culture of athletics. Will walking into a road that had not been travelled before be worth it? Will becoming a javelin thrower, something which he was doing amongst many other sports, provide financial security? Questions after questions kept running through his mind.

But after deliberations with his elder brother Shahid, Nadeem opted to take the gamble around 2016 and the rest is history. On Thursday when he smashed the Olympic record and sent the crowd into raptures, his country went into delirium as it won its first ever medal from athletics and a third individual one. A hero was born. Cricket’s loss was athletics’ gain and it was celebrated throughout the night and continued on Friday.

“I was a cricketer, I played table tennis and I also participated in athletics events. But my coach told me I have got a very good physique for the javelin throw and I concentrated on javelin only from 2016,” a delighted Nadeem, draped with the Pakistani flag, told the media.

A star now, things were extremely hard for Nadeem when he made the decision to become a javelin-thrower. During his early days, his fellow villagers and relatives funded his training and travel. In fact, his struggles have continued even after success at the international level.

Winner of the silver medal at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, following his gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and a bronze at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Nadeem made an open plea for funding to get a new javelin a few months ago. Nadeem had been using the same javelin for several years and his request saw help coming in from several quarters, including his friend Neeraj Chopra. Nadeem even used Chopra’s javelin at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago where the Indian triumphed.

Then there have been battles against his own body. Javelin throw is an extremely brutal sport and Nadeem’s hopes of competing in Paris looked in jeopardy when he went under the knife for a knee issue earlier this year. This was after he’d undergone an elbow surgery in 2022.

Nadeem, a devout muslim who prefers being an introvert, though never gave up during all those turbulent times, his eyes firmly fixed on changing all of it in Paris. And he did it in exceptional fashion, similar to what Chopra did in Tokyo. The spotlight shone on him with the media scrambling for bytes but all he did was keep thanking his people back home who made the dream become a reality.

“I am thankful to the nation. Everyone prayed for me and I was confident of doing well. I come from a farming village and every time I win a medal I think about my origins and that motivates me to do better. I had to go through very tough times to make it to this stage. That's why I want to become more successful,” averred Nadeem with a gentle smile on his face.