Arshad Nadeem hails from Chak 115-L, a village in Mian Channu. His father, Muhammad Ashraf, is a mason who lays bricks in people’s homes. Arshad is one of seven siblings. From a young age, he was tall and well-built, with a passion for sports, a passion that earned him a fair share of beatings from his father. He played all kinds of sports, including cricket, running, shot put, and long jump. One day, the district Khanewal sports coach, Rasheed Saqi, noticed him. Rasheed observed that this young man had long and strong arms and a burning passion for sports. Rasheed liked him and took him under his wing. Saqi was Arshad Nadeem’s first supporter. Rasheed advised him to focus solely on javelin throw and even made a wooden javelin for him. Arshad Nadeem, naturally disciplined and incredibly focused, limited himself to javelin throwing.
There were no facilities or grounds for javelin in the entire Khanewal district. So, if it’s said today that Arshad Nadeem is a world champion in javelin, it’s entirely his personal achievement, and this would not be wrong. The pride the system is taking today is entirely artificial and hypocritical. If anyone deserves credit for this gold medal, it’s Arshad Nadeem himself. Why? Because he won the gold medal in javelin without having a proper javelin. Until his journey to Paris, he didn’t have a professional javelin. In fact, the javelin he threw to win the gold medal in the Paris Olympics isn’t available anywhere in the country, and that’s his true achievement. Today, I cannot understand why we refuse to accept this reality. Landing on Mount Everest or K2 by helicopter and planting a flag is not an achievement; the real achievement is climbing the world’s highest peaks on foot, and even more so without an oxygen tank. The champion is the one who accomplishes this.
Arshad Nadeem is such a champion. He achieved this honor without a proper javelin, ground, jogging shoes, nutrition, coaching, or the latest exercise machines, and no amount of pride we take in him will be enough. However, instead of acknowledging his achievement, we are trying to convince the world and ourselves that if it weren’t for Imran Khan, if it weren’t for Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s Youth Festival, or if the Pakistan Olympics Committee hadn’t supported him, he would never have succeeded. We are telling Arshad Nadeem the same thing, while the truth is that he reached here without any of them, and he is a beacon of hope for every young person in Pakistan who constantly complains about the lack of resources.
Arshad Nadeem is sending a message to 250 million people that if you want to achieve something in life, the lack of resources or the abundance of problems cannot stand in your way. “Just do it,” and no obstacle in the world can stop you. I don’t understand why we are not ready to accept this? Arshad Nadeem is the son of a mason; he’s from a village; he couldn’t study beyond middle school. He practiced with a locally made javelin. He didn’t receive proper coaching until the final stages. He grew up in poverty; he didn’t have exercise equipment, so he made dumbbells from cement and bamboo, and until 2023, he didn’t receive any official support. Despite all this, he brought a gold medal to Pakistan after 40 years. What’s the harm in accepting this truth? Why are we turning a blind eye to it?
Arshad Nadeem’s success has established four truths in the country, and it would be wise for us to accept these truths, as they could greatly benefit us on a national level. The first truth is that the nation is starved for good news. We are being battered from all sides and receive bad news daily from every direction. In this situation, a single gold medal has made the entire country happy. People embraced each other, cried tears of joy, and congratulated each other. We need to recognize this deficiency in vitamin happiness and should arrange for some form of joy for the nation every day. It’s said that if you aren’t finding success or happiness, you should invent one for yourself, and even this invention will give you the same level of happiness as genuine joy. The second truth is that apart from cricket, there are no facilities for other sports in Pakistan.
As a nation, we are under the misconception that there is only one sport in the world, and that is cricket. However, after 1992 and 2009, cricket has always left the nation sad, worried, and disappointed. There were 32 categories of sports in the Paris Olympics. The government should collect data on all the Olympic games and form small committees for each and give them the target to bring forth two dozen athletes like Arshad Nadeem by the next Olympics. These committees should gather talent from all over Pakistan and, just as Mian Shahbaz Sharif organized the Youth Festival in Lahore in 2012 (Arshad Nadeem also emerged for the first time in that Youth Festival), similar youth or sports festivals should be held in all provinces. The top performers from these should be brought to Islamabad for a federal festival, and the athletes who emerge should receive international-level coaching.
The government should also review the centuries-old sports board, and any board that hasn’t won a major medal or produced an athlete like Arshad Nadeem in the last ten or twenty years should be dissolved. The budget from these boards should be used to buy ten or twenty javelins for athletes like Arshad Nadeem. This would be a much better use of funds. The third truth is that our country suffers severely from a disease of taking credit. As soon as Arshad Nadeem threw the javelin, the entire country started racing to take credit for this success. If anyone in Mian Channu had ever sold a liter of milk to this athlete, they claimed that it was due to their buffalo’s milk. If someone had hired Arshad Nadeem’s father to lay ten bricks in their house or shop, they felt it was the result of their honest earnings.
From the milkman in Mian Channu to Imran Khan, everyone suddenly remembered the contributions they made that led to the emergence of an athlete like Arshad Nadeem. But the question to consider is, if all these people were so skilled, why did their accomplishments remain limited to just one person? Hundreds of people must have benefited from Nooray Doodhi’s buffalo; why didn’t any of them become good cricketers, hockey players, or athletes from that milk? Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s Youth Festival had 1,400 participants, and during Imran Khan’s tenure, Retired General Akram Sahi, the President of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan, had his hand of blessing on the heads of hundreds of athletes. But why did all these athletes remain deprived of the blessing of this hand? They should have become like Arshad Nadeem too; why didn’t they? The plain and simple truth is that this achievement belongs to Arshad Nadeem alone, and only his neck should bear the medal, and all those running in the race for credit should admit their defeat and salute Arshad Nadeem’s courage, determination, and hard work.
They should accept that this man proved bigger than the system, and before throwing the javelin in the Paris stadium, he crossed thousands of javelins barefoot in this country, and no javelin in the system could match his courage, determination, and resolve. However, we must give credit to Mian Shahbaz Sharif for starting the Youth Festivals in Punjab in 2012. It was a very good initiative, but unfortunately, it was discontinued later. If this had continued, ten or twenty more athletes like Arshad Nadeem could have emerged. The Chief Minister of Punjab should not only restart this but also establish a Talent Discovery Unit in Punjab. This unit should create a website, acquire a toll-free number, and set up a 24-hour office. Talented youth from across the province should register with this unit, experts should evaluate their skills, and then their talent should be promoted. This would change the mindset of the province and the country.
Our fourth truth is that, as a nation, we have become mourning experts. We don’t let happiness remain happiness. Arshad Nadeem’s gold medal was a moment of joy for the entire nation, but we started trolling each other even during this time. PTI began cursing the PML-N, and the PML-N started lamenting about PTI. Meanwhile, the nation began highlighting Arshad Nadeem’s poverty, the condition of his house and village, his job with WAPDA, and his subsequent unemployment. They showed his lack of proper javelins and cement dumbbells, making the nation sad. We turned this moment of joy into mourning. This wasn’t the time for mourning; it was a moment of pride and victory, and we should have proudly told each other, “Look, Arshad Nadeem achieved such a great feat without facilities.” But instead, we began mourning over his torn shoes and the cracked walls of his house. We need to change this attitude of the nation, or else this mourning, this business of sadness, and trolling each other will consume all our courage, and we will become living corpses.