ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif presented a cheque of Rs100 million [$359,049] and gifted a car to Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem on Tuesday, paying tribute to his recent triumph at the prestigious international competition. 

Nadeem grabbed headlines last Thursday when he bagged Pakistan’s first individual gold medal in the men’s javelin throw competition during the Paris Olympics 2024. He threw the javelin at a distance of 92.97 meters, a new Olympic record to knock former Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra to second position. 

Following Nadeem’s triumph at the Olympics, Pakistani politicians announced cash rewards and honors for the star javelin thrower. Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab announced a Rs50,000,000 [$179,524] cash award for Nadeem and promised to establish an athletics academy named after the Olympian.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday announced he would award the country’s highest civilian honor, the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, to Nadeem in a special ceremony.

Chief Minister Sharif arrived at Nadeem’s home in the eastern city of Mian Channu in Khanewal district, where she was accorded a warm welcome. Sharif met Nadeem’s family members at his house and clicked selfies with them. 

“Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif presented a cheque of Rs100 million and the key to a Honda Civic car “92.97” to Nadeem,” the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, of whom Sharif is a senior member, wrote on social media platform X. 

The chief minister also presented Nadeem’s coach Salman Iqbal Butt a cheque of Rs5 million [$17,952] and lauded him for training the Pakistani star javelin thrower.

Nadeem is the son of a daily wage laborer who never had access to proper training facilities. His brother told international wire agency Reuters that he and Nadeem initially trained with improvised homemade javelins made by using long eucalyptus branches with iron tips on their ends. 

The star athlete was still training with substandard javelins months before the Paris Olympics until a last-minute appeal saw the Pakistani government intervene to sponsor his equipment. 

Nadeem is a 10-time international medalist who secured fifth position at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Pakistani star athlete won silver at the World Championships last year and gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, where he broke the 90-meter barrier for the first time with a 90.18-meter throw.