Olympic champion and Pakistan javelin star Arshad Nadeem yet to recover completely from calf surgery
Olympic gold-winning Pakistani javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has revealed that he still hasn’t fully recovered from a calf surgery that he underwent in July this year, despite competing in two major events since.
Nadeem won gold at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh recently after a disappointing 10th-place finish in the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
“It gives me satisfaction that I could win another gold medal for my country, and I am always grateful to Almighty Allah for his blessings, but I am yet to get over the disappointment of the World Athletics Championships in September,” he said.
“I won gold here (Riyadh), but the recovery from surgery kept me from giving my best. A throw of 83.05m is not up to my standards as an Olympic champion,” he added while analysing his performance.
Nadeem, Pakistan’s most successful track-and-field athlete, won gold in the Olympics last year with a monster throw of 92.97m.
Nadeem said he is working on drawing up a smooth rehabilitation programme, which would allow him to get back to full fitness by early next year.
ALSO READ: Neeraj Chopra formally conferred insignia of Lieutenant Colonel in Territorial Army
The athlete, belonging to a village in Mian Channu in Pakistan’s Punjab, previously won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games with a throw of 90.18m and a silver at the World Championships in 2023.
This year, he also won gold in the Asian Athletics Championships in South Korea.
Nadeem underwent a calf-muscle surgery in England in July 2025.
He didn’t have the ideal build-up for the Islamic Solidarity Games. His flight from Lahore to Riyadh was delayed by around eight hours due to operational problems, and he also had to fight to have his long-time coach and mentor, Salman Butt, accompany him.
Butt was slapped with a lifetime ban by the Pakistan Amateur Athletics Federation in October for some constitutional violations in elections while heading the Punjab body.
Butt approached the Pakistan Sports Board, and eventually it led to the country’s Olympic Association clearing him to accompany the Pakistan squad to Riyadh.
Published on Nov 20, 2025