More than a decade after making a javelin from a bamboo stick in a small village in Pakistan's Punjab province, Arshad Nadeem stunned the world with his Olympic gold medal-winning throw at the Paris Games.
“I made that javelin myself in 2012,” Nadeem told ARY News television as he recalled his early days in a sport which is nowhere near in popularity to what cricket is in Pakistan.
Nadeem has been a sensation in Pakistan since he won gold at Paris on Aug. 8, beating his subcontinental rival Neeraj Chopra of India, who took silver.
The throw has earned Nadeem over $1 million — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has promised a sum of 150 million rupees ($538,000) and chief minister Punjab Mariam Nawaz handed him a check for 100 million rupees ($359,000) in his village last Tuesday.
Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah has also promised to give Nadeem 50 million rupees ($179,500).
In a cricket-loving country of 250 million, it was no surprise that Nadeem took up the bat and ball sport at a young age. It was only after his elder brother and father suggested that he try his hand at javelin or shot put that Nadeem forgot about cricket.
“(They) told me ‘try shot put or javelin because there’s a chance you might excel in an individual sport rather than team game like cricket,’” Nadeem said.
He hasn't looked back since.
Four years after he took up the javelin, Nadeem rose on the international scene when he won bronze at the South Asia Federation in the Indian city of Guwahati. It was at that event when Nadeem first met Chopra, who won gold.
Chopra also won gold at the Tokyo Olympics where Nadeem threw a distance of 84.62 meters to finish fifth.
“I started to train for Paris soon after Tokyo Olympics because I knew it, I can do something special for Pakistan,” Nadeem said in the TV interview aired Thursday.
Pakistan last won a gold medal at the Olympics in 1984 when its men’s field hockey team won in Los Angeles.
Pakistan was represented by only seven athletes at Paris, and after six of them failed to have any podium impact in swimming, track and shooting events, Nadeem said he was the sole hope of his country.
“I stopped watching social media two days before the qualifying round because I was the last hope of millions of Pakistanis back home,” Nadeem said.
He threw over 86 meters and qualified for the final round, but lost his run-up in the first throw and fouled. And then came his record-breaking throw of 92.97 meters in his second attempt.
“When he first came to me 12 years ago, I had a belief that one day he will go over the 90-meter mark,” said Nadeem’s initial coach Arshad Ahmed Saqi, who first sent Nadeem to a provincial level tournament in Lahore in 2012 from a small village of Mian Channu district in Punjab province.
Nadeem said he was “90 to 95%” sure after his second throw that he would win gold, but he kept on trying to go further in his remaining four attempts.
“I knew it I could do it,” Nadeem said. “Even my last throw was over 90 meters because I believed in myself. Hopefully one day I will break the world record.”
Back home his family was up late at night and overnight — due to the time difference with Paris — watching Nadeem live on television.
His wife Ayesha was also praying.
“I didn’t sleep for three nights,” said Ayesha. “I knew he could do it, and I didn’t stop praying for him.”
