File photo of Arshad Nadeem.© AFP
The entire Pakistan has been showering great love on Arshad Nadeem for his heroics in the recently-concluded Paris Olympics. The star javelin thrower bagged a gold medal for Pakistan in the event, which happens to be the nation's first-ever top honour in an indiviual sport at the Games. To make things better, Arshad achieved it with an Olympic record of 92.97m. The country as well as its government had a lot of faith in the athlete and he repaid all of that with his incredible performance.
Arshad received a hero's welcome upon his arrival to Pakistan, especially the crowd at his hometown Mian Channu was hard to control after the player reached there.
While the athlete gaining more and more attention, he made sure he didn't forget the problems faced by his villagers. Arshad appealed the Pakistani government about some basic facilities to be provided in his village.
"My village needs roads. If the government provides cooking gas, it would be great for me and my village. I also have a dream that Mian Channu city gets a university so that our sisters won't have to travel to Multan, which is 1.5 to 2 hours away, to study. If government makes a university here it would be a great news for my village and the neighbouring ones," Arshad told reporters in Pakistan.
Pakistani Olympic Javlin Gold-medalist Arshad Nadeem says his village needs roads, electricity and gas. Asks Pakistan Government to make a University and Stadium for youth. Girls have to travel more than an hour in a bus to Multan for education. Kudos pic.twitter.com/ehBC3bWiR2
— Piyushkant Mishra (@Piyushkant16611) August 11, 2024
Besides raising the issues, Nadeem also thanked the government for its support.
Arshad, who is a son of a retired construction worker, has certainly seen the hardest of times mainly due to the lack of money. During his childhood, the player used to take monetary help from fellow villagers and relatives so that he could travel to other cities for his training and events in his early days.
Even a few months back, Arshad had appealed to the authorities to replace his old javelin with a new one for his training.
A historic Olympic gold in Paris has made life much different for him now.