PM Shehbaz awards Rs 150 million to Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a reward of 150 million rupees for Arshad Nadeem, the gold medalist who won the Paris Olympics with a record javelin throw of 92.97 meters.

The announcement was made during a grand state banquet held in Nadeem’s honor. The prime minister confirmed that the reward would be tax-free. He also noted that the Punjab Chief Minister had earlier allocated Rs100 million to Nadeem, and the Sindh government added Rs50 million to the total.

Also, PM Shehbaz said that the road between F9 and F10 in Islamabad would be named after Arshad Nadeem. He also revealed plans to establish the Arshad Nadeem Academy at Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad and announced a sports endowment fund of Rs1 billion.

Earlier, Nadeem arrived at Islamabad’s Nur Khan Airbase aboard a special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force along with his family and coach. He was welcomed with state-level protocol and honored at a banquet hosted by the Prime Minister.

On August 14, Prime Minister Shehbaz and Arshad Nadeem will unfurl the Pakistani flag together in the main flag-raising ceremony.

Arshad Nadeem made history last week by setting a new Olympic record with a javelin throw of 92.97 meters at the Paris Olympics 2024. He is the first Pakistani to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Nadeem surpassed the previous record of 90.57 meters set by Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

India’s Neeraj Chopra secured the silver medal with a season’s best throw of 89.45 metres, while Grenada’s Anderson Peters won bronze with a throw of 88.54 metres. Nadeem achieved throws over 90 meters twice during the competition, with his last throw reaching 91.79 meters.