Pakistani breaks Olympic record. Friendship with Indian rival melts hearts

On a warm August evening at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo in 2021, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, carrying the weight of the hopes of 240 million of his countrymen, just froze.

He was one of the favourites to finish on the podium and end Pakistan’s Olympic medal drought. But a best throw of 84.62 metres was only good enough for him to finish fifth.

No medal, yet again.

Meanwhile, his main rival, India’s Neeraj Chopra, recorded a throw of 87.58 metres to win the gold. Draped in the Indian flag, Chopra celebrated his historic triumph with a victory lap but did not forget to console Nadeem, who was on the verge of tears.

“Don’t worry, my friend. You will have more opportunities,” Chopra told Nadeem.

Almost exactly three years later the roles were reversed under the Paris night sky on Thursday night.

Nadeem, once a ragtag athlete from a little-known village in Pakistan’s Punjab province who struggled to buy a javelin, broke the Olympic record with a monstrous throw of 92.97 metres to win his country’s first Olympic medal in 32 years.

Here are some bare-bone facts to put his victory in perspective.

Arshad’s gold was Pakistan’s first in 40 years – the country’s hockey team won the Olympic title in Los Angeles in 1984.

It was Pakistan’s first individual gold in Olympic history and the first individual medal since boxer Hussain Shah’s bronze in Seoul in 1988.

It was now Nadeem’s turn to bask in the glory of a stunning Olympic triumph. Holding the green-and-white Pakistan flag, he took a victory lap. Gave autographs to young fans. But he did not forget to hug Chopra, who had won the silver with a throw of 89.45m.

Friends forever

Nadeem’s Paris victory was just another chapter in their relationship, which is part rivalry and part friendship.

This was the first time that Nadeem had beaten Chopra after having finished behind him in 10 previous attempts at various events, including the Olympics and World Championships.

Nadeem, despite being the only South Asian to have recorded a throw of over 90m – he did that on his way to win the Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 – was the clear underdog behind the likes of defending champion Chopra and Grenada’s Anderson Peters.

There were doubts about his fitness, having struggled with elbow and knee injuries in the lead-up to the Paris Games.

His preparations for the Olympics had been far from perfect as Nadeem trained in below-par facilities in Lahore, where the real-feel temperatures would touch 53-degree Centigrade in the weeks preceding his departure for Paris.

But Nadeem was a man on a mission. He knew that Pakistan had not won an Olympic medal in decades. And he was the country’s only hope.

And one throw of the javelin, his second attempt of the night, transformed him into a sporting legend, perhaps the greatest Olympian from his nation.

As things stand, he is likely to end up as the only Olympic champion in Paris from South Asia, a region home to almost two billion people—a quarter of the world’s population.

And that was precisely the reason why Nadeem’s victory was also celebrated in India with Chopra’s mother commenting that the Pakistani is also like her own son.

At her home in Panipat, Haryana, Saroj Devi was asked whether she was disappointed that her son was unable to defend his Olympic title. She replied: “For us, silver is also like gold…The one who got the gold (Arshad Nadeem) is also like our son.”

Nadeem’s mother conveyed the same message. “Neeraj Chopra is like a son to me. I prayed for him too.”

Nadeem’s hometown of Mian Channu is about 450 kilometres from Panipat. Before India’s partition in 1947—which ended British rule in the subcontinent—both Mian Channu and Panipat were part of Punjab, one of the most prosperous regions in undivided India.

Probably it’s the fact that the two speak similar languages and like similar food that brought them closer.

Gunning for glory

But mostly, it is mutual respect. Both Nadeem and Chopra are among the best javelin throwers of all time. Both of them are ace athletes from their respective countries. And they back each other.

Sometime back, when Nadeem posted on social media that he was struggling to find a replacement for his broken javelin, Chopra offered his support.

Nadeem is 27 while Chopra is 26. Both are still young and are likely to come face to face again at the next Olympic Games, to be held in 2028 in Los Angeles.

In between, they would revive their rivalry on the field at various major events, such as the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, and the World Athletics Championship.

Unlike in the past, when Nadeem played second fiddle to his Indian opponent, things will be different when the two will meet again in the arena.

Nadeem believes that their rivalry could provide a boost to sports other than cricket, which remains the most popular pastime in both Pakistan and India.

"There is definitely rivalry (between Pakistan and India), especially in cricket. (I believe) our rivalry is a good thing for youngsters from both countries who are pursuing a sport to follow us and follow their sports icons and bring laurels to their countries," says Nadeem, who surpassed Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen (90.57m in the 2008 Beijing Games) to set a new Olympic record on Thursday night.

Arshad believes he can throw even longer.

"Over the years, I got a knee injury and recovered and worked hard on my fitness. I was even confident of throwing beyond 92.97m, but that throw was enough for me to win the gold," he adds.

"I will continue to work hard and give my best in the days and months to come. I am hoping to throw beyond this mark as well."

Humble beginnings

So how did a villager with little access to equipment or training manage to reach the pinnacle of sporting success against all odds?

Perhaps it was Nadeem’s destiny.

His father Mohammad Ashraf is a mason by profession, not a particularly paying job in Pakistan. But Nadeem was born with a gift: he was natural when it came to sports.

As a youngster, he tried his hand at cricket and table tennis. He then moved to athletics and ran several races before finally ending up as a javelin thrower.

He was lucky to find Rashid Ahmad Saqi, his first coach, who worked on Nadeem’s basics. Soon, the teenager was making his presence felt at the national level. Initially, he learned the ropes with a homemade javelin.

Appearing in a TV show (before the Paris Games), Nadeem revealed how he managed to become a javelin thrower in his salad days as an athlete.

“There was a time when I would take a bamboo stick to the village craftsman and tell him to shape it like a javelin and practise on the ground. Saqi sahib would spend hours telling me how to use my elbows to throw, and those were my first memories of taking javelin throw seriously,” he recalled.

He moved into the second phase after being spotted by Syed Hussain Bukhari, a five-time national champion, during local trials.

Bukhari was impressed by Nadeem’s talent and took him under his wing.

He began to make waves soon, winning at the Nationals and then claiming a bronze medal at the 2016 South Asian Games in Guwahati, India, with a throw of 78.33.

His previous high points came at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where he threw 90.18m to win gold and at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon (US), where a throw of 87.82 earned him a silver, Pakistan’s first medal in the event’s history.

But despite all that success, nobody saw it coming – the two record-breaking throws at the Stade de France on Thursday night.

Especially Chopra. He thought it was a done deal after a season’s best throw of 89.45. But Nadeem raised the bar very high with his throw of almost 93m. Chopra believed he could better it but failed to do so.

Nadeem’s victory has made his Indo-Pak rivalry with Chopra far more exciting than it ever was without affecting their friendship.

“We both are aiming to give our best. Our friendship has been intact since 2016, and I want it to get stronger,” says Nadeem, who will get a hero’s welcome when he returns home, where he will be showered with rewards.

In fact, that has already started.

Everyone, including top government officials and corporate bosses, is announcing rich rewards for the country’s first-ever individual Olympic champion.

Ask his father, Muhammad Ashraf, and he will tell you that his son’s achievements have changed everything. “I have worked as a labourer all my life but see how far my son has gone.”

He certainly has.