Dozens of residents gathered outside Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem’s modest home to watch the towering javelin thrower take part in the Olympic Games final on Thursday night. The event was broadcast live by a digital projector on a screen hanging from the back of a truck in his farming village, near the small town of Mian Channu in Punjab province. As the javelin soared through the sky in Paris for a new Olympic record and a gold medal for Nadeem, thousands of kilometers (miles) away, the villagers’ cheers echoed into the night.
Watch: Celebrations in Arshad Nadeem’s hometown as he wins javelin gold at Olympics
Gold medalist ARSHAD NADEEM’S village! Streets full of family, friends and fans come together to honor their hero!
Source: https://t.co/ZySwcsc5jW#ArshadNadeem #Olympics2024Paris #OlympicGames pic.twitter.com/OsZPns3TSr
-Shahanshah E Azam (@ShahanshahEAzam) August 8, 2024
“He made a great throw and made history. We are proud of him,” said Muhammad Azeem, Nadeem’s 35-year-old brother.
Men danced to the celebratory beat of a drum and others clapped and chanted slogans when it became clear he had won.
Meanwhile, the women were sitting around a small TV inside Nadeem’s house.
“He promised me that he would play well, go abroad, win a medal and make Pakistan proud,” said his mother Raziah Parveen bluntly.
Despite practicing with poor equipment and little access to the gyms and training camps of his international competitors, Nadeem gave Pakistan its first Olympic gold medal in 32 years.
First attracted to cricket
“He belongs to Mian Channu. He belongs to a small village and has raised Pakistan’s national flag at the international level,” said Rasheed Ahmed, Nadeem’s former coach who first noticed his talent.
The son of a retired construction worker, 27-year-old Nadeem is the third of eight siblings and – like most Pakistanis – was drawn to cricket.
“I made Arshad switch from cricket to javelin at a time when no one knew what javelin was,” said Shahid Nadeem, Arshad’s elder brother.
“He took that baton to the Olympics, set a new record and won gold,” he told AFP as his family celebrated.
Retired local sports official Parvaiz Ahmed Dogar told AFP of the difficulties they faced in getting Nadeem professional training.
“The athletes used wooden sticks with a rope attached as a javelin. They didn’t even fall at the tip,” remembers Dogar.
Pakistan does not have a suitable field for athletics, so athletes have to train on the cricket field.
In March, Nadeem revealed that he only owned one dart, which he had been using for seven years and that it was damaged.
Speaking to the media after his victory, Nadeem said that all the struggle was worth it.
“When I threw the javelin, I felt it coming out of my hand and I felt like it could be an Olympic record,” he said.
Back in Mian Channu, the locals applauded and agreed.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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