Pakistan’s javelin star Arshad Nadeem broke the Olympic record before clinching the gold medal at the Paris Games last week. Arshad’s 92.97m attempt soared through the Parisian night sky, confirming Pakistan’s first gold medal at the Olympics since 1984. Less than a week after stunning the reigning champion Neeraj Chopra of India, Arshad has revealed that he had travelled to the Paris Olympics 2024 carrying an injury. He made the revelation while speaking at the Prime Minister’s office in Islamabad on Wednesday.

“Just five minutes before I had to go to the call room (the room where athletes in track and field events gather before their names are announced and they appear on the track), I felt a pain. I told my coach. And he said, ‘kuch nahi hota, tu sher hai (there will be no issues, you are a lion. I had actually picked up an injury while throwing on 21st July when we were training at Punjab Stadium. We were supposed to fly on 24th July. We (coach, doctor and myself) didn’t tell anyone,” Arshad said.

Despite a false start and the jitters around the niggle, Arshad managed to maintain his composure, but credited his coach for keeping his morale high.

“During the first throw, I felt some pain and the doctor applied some medicine. I told him I didn’t know if that would have any effect. The doctor also told me ‘tum sher ho‘. Both the doctor and coach told me the same words,” he added.

Earlier this week, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a grand reward of PKR 150 million to Nadeem, as well as a civil award.

Chief Minister of the province of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, awarded Nadeem PKR 10 million, as well as a Honda Civic Car with a specially stylized number plate reading ‘PAK 92.97’.