Will Arshad Nadeem end Pakistan's Olympic medal drought of 29 years?

When Arshad Nadeem takes to the field on August 7, his broad shoulders will carry much more than the weight of personal expectations. His country—Pakistan—has not won an Olympics medal for 29 years; its last one came in hockey at Barcelona 1992. In each of the Olympics since, Pakistan has been the most populous country not to medal.

A few days ago, Nadeem had thrown his way into the javelin finals. While the Indian Neeraj Chopra topped the qualifications with a throw of 86.65m, Nadeem wasn’t too far behind with 85.16m. It was an automatic qualification.

It was also a ray of hope to millions of Pakistanis back home, who had about two weeks back cheered on weightlifter Talha Talib, just 21, as he held the gold medal spot in the 67kg category until the final round. He eventually finished fifth, and the nation let out a sigh.

But Nadeem is a bigger hope to the medal-starved nation. He has a personal best of 86.38m and had out-thrown some of the favourites en route to the finals.

Whether the medals or not, Nadeem has already made history for Pakistan. He is the first Pakistani to make it to an athletics finals at the Olympics. In 2019, he was also the only Pakistani at the World Athletics Championships in Doha. He broke the national record with an 81.52m throw, but missed out on qualification. The same year, at the South Asian Games, Nadeem broke Chopra’s games record with a throw of 86.29m to clinch gold. Chopra had missed the tournament due to injury.

Though Nadeem and Chopra have known each for a long time—the Olympics website says Nadeem lists Chopra as his hero—it was their picture on the podium at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta that piqued the interest of many.

They had first met at the South Asian Games in Guwahati in 2016. It was Nadeem’s first international competition. Chopra set a games record of 82.23m and won gold, while Nadeem finished third behind a Sri Lankan thrower with 78.33m.

At the 2018 Asian Games, it was more of the same. Chopra won gold with a throw of 88.06m, while Nadeem finished third again, this time behind a Chinese thrower, with 80.75m.

Millions of Pakistanis would be hoping for a repeat, if not better, in Tokyo.