Javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has won the gold medal in his event at the Paris Olympics, but there is every danger of this being just a flash in the pan. After all, this is not the first time that Pakistan had had an exceptional athlete, when it had that exceptional middle-distance runner, Muhammad Younus, who won a gold medal at the 1974 Asian Games, not to mention his silver in the preceding games and bronze in the succeeding games. He did not win an Olympic medal, but he was a role model in a sport that involved no equipment at all, while Arshad’s does require a javelin.
Arshad finally won Olympic gold after having competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he had the distinction of being the first Pakistani to qualify for the final of his event. The more usual fate of Pakistani athletes, both male and female, could be seen from the fate of the rest of the Paris contingent, which has been elimination at the heats stage. Until 1984, Pakistan only won Olympic medals in men’s field hockey, and that was the last time Pakistan reached an Olympic victory stand. Pakistani hockey has gone into an apparently irretrievable decline. The 1970s seemed more promising than today, with Younus running, the cricket team improving, squash about to enter a new era with Jahangir Khan and Jansher. However, it now seems to have gone all awry, and while cricket and squash have been included at the next Olympics, Pakistan does not have any chances of a medal in those sports. Arshad has shown that there is talent aplenty, and that some few gifted individuals can defy the odds to produce amazing results, but still, there would be greater efforts by the authorities to provide an enabling environment.
That actually means putting up more money.While the dispute between the authorities and the athletes in Paris over the payment of daily allowances shows where the problem lies, any money put into new athletics programmes will need diversification. The general category is track and field because while some events, such as races, take place on tracks, others, like the javelin throw, need fields. One suggestion is that there should be a dedicated athletic stadium, of which there are presently none. That would ensure that no future talented youngster would be deprived of the facilities he needs, as Arshad once was.
