Among the many things that caught the eye in the wake of Arshad Nadeem's historic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics was that his father-in-law would be gifting him a buffalo. Nadeem hails from the rural area of Khanewal in Pakistan's Punjab and receiving a buffalo as a gift, his father-in-law Muhammad Nawaz had said, is regarded as a great honour.

The Olympic champion, however, had a hilarious take on the news. "She was the one who told me and I said buffalo?" Nadeem said on ARY News. "He could have given me five acres of land. But then I said ok fine, he gave me a buffalo, that is also nice," he said while laughing

His wife said that she learned about this only through the media. "She learned about it through some interviews, and she came and told me about it. I said, ' A buffalo? By God's grace, he is so rich, and he gave a buffalo?'" said Nadeem.

Made the Olympic record throw while managing an injury

Nadeem is the first Pakistani to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event and the first from the country since their men's hockey team in 1984 to win any gold medal at the Games. While he started the men's javelin final with a foul throw, his second went was a monster 92.97m attempt that was well over the previous Olympic record of 90.57m. It pretty much assured him gold and while Indian defending champion Neeraj Chopra threw his season's best of 89.45m, no one was able to cross 90m on the night.

Moreover, Nadeem finished off his series of six throws with a final 91.79m attempt, which itself was more than the previous Olympic record. Nadeem has now revealed that he was managing an injury throughout the Olympics, having sustained it before he left for Paris. “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,'” Nadeem revealed at the Prime Minister House in Islamabad where a state banquet was held in his honour.

“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 said.

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