Arshad Nadeem, who crowd-funded to buy javelin for Olympics, to get 10 crore prize money

Maryam Nawaz announces cash prize for Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem, sparking hope for future of athletics in Pakistan.

Chief Minister of Pakistan's Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz, has announced a 10 crore (PKR) cash prize for javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, who smashed the Olympic record en route an unprecedented gold in Paris, a remarkable turnaround for the athlete who had to seek crowd funding for a new javelin months before the Games.

Nawaz also said a sports city named after the athlete would be built in his hometown of Khanewal.

Nadeem has faced scarcity of resources and facilities that all non-cricket playing athletes face in the country.

Even after winning a Commonwealth Games gold and World Championship silver in 2022 and 2023, Arshad had to plead for a new javelin before the Paris Olympics as his old one had worn out after years of use.

Perhaps this is why Arshad's first message to his parents from Paris on Thursday is that he is now determined to build a proper academy for athletes in or near his village.

"He was thankful to Allah for giving him so much glory and the one thing he said was that he hoped his olympic gold medal will now help in his endeavour to build a sports academy for athletes in his rural area," his father Muhammad Arshad told PTI.

Nadeem has said recently that he would love to see proper academies for track and field athletes in Punjab because of the difficulties he faced as a javelin thrower and because of shortage of proper training facilities, coaching, funds and equipment for athletes in the country.