Arshad Nadeem, 27 years of age is the first athlete of Pakistan who qualified for the Javelin Throw event final out of the seven athletes participating at the Paris Olympics 2024 in France. Nadeem's father Muhammad Ashraf revealed how his villagers played a huge role in funding his training during the early days of his career. Nadeem surprised everyone with a monster throw of 92.97m on Friday (August 9) including Neeraj Chopra. He won gold medal for Pakistan and scripted history for Pakistan at the Olympics. Interestingly, he had two monster throws of 90m plus in his five attempts whereas Chopra failed to breach the 90m mark yet again.
"People have no idea how Arshad got to this place today. How his fellow villagers and relatives used to donate money so that he could travel to other cities for his training and events in his early days," his father Muhammad Ashraf told PTI on phone. (Paris Olympics 2024: Aman Sehrawat Faces Embarrassing Defeat In Semifinal Against Japan's Rei Higuchi)
In Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Nadeem finished fifth in the Men's Javelin Throw with a throw of 86.62m. Before this Olympics in Paris, Nadeem had a career best throw of 90.18 which also made him the first Asian to breach the 90m mark.
How Arshad Nadeem's Career Began?
In 2015, Nadeem started competing in javelin throw events and quickly made his mark. In 2016, he got bronze at the South Asian Games in Guwahati, India with a national record of 78.33 meters.
Nadeem made a name for himself during the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar when he became the only athlete to compete in the competition. Nadeem's story from a school boy who was interested in sports to a Olympic record-breaker is an example that anyone can achieve everything with hardwork and dedication.
