Reigning Olympic javelin champion Arshad Nadeem has expressed his disappointment over ‘fake promises’ made following his historic gold medal at the Paris Olympics. 9y
Nadeem clinched the gold with an Olympic record throw of 92.97m at the Stade de France, last year, finishing ahead of India’s Neeraj Chopra, who took silver. His performance triggered widespread celebrations in Pakistan, with a slew of prize announcements pouring in from government bodies, provinces and private organisations.
“Every plot announcement was false. I haven’t received a single one,” he revealed in a recent interview.
“Out of all the prize announcements made for me, all the plot announcements were fake, which I did not receive. Apart from that, I have received all the cash prizes that were announced,” Geo TV quoted him as saying.
Despite the setback, Nadeem remains focused on the future and is currently preparing for the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo, scheduled for September.
“My entire focus is on myself, but apart from that, we train any youth who comes to us for training, and this training is given by my coach Salman Butt,” he stated.
Nadeem, who finished fifth on his Olympic debut at Tokyo in 2021, with his best throw of 84.62, 2.96m short of gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, hails from Mian Channu, a town in Punjab which is 250 km from Lahore.
Hailing from a humble background, Nadeem had to struggle a lot due to his family’s poor financial condition as his father is a construction worker and the sole breadwinner of the family. The situation was so bad that once the village people funded his training and travel to international competitions.
According to reports, Nadeem recently underwent a successful surgery in the United Kingdom under the supervision of Dr Ali Bajwa. The procedure was necessitated after medical experts discovered partial damage to his calf muscle.
While a timeline for his recovery is yet to be known, Arshad is expected to compete against Neeraj at the Diamond League event in Silesia, Poland, on August 16, marking their first face-off since Paris 2024.