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Pakistan's Olympic gold medalist, Arshad Nadeem, is being showered with cash and gifts in recognition of his historic win. In a unique gesture, his father-in-law has presented him with a buffalo, a traditional and meaningful gift that reflects the athlete's rural upbringing.
Muhammad Nawaz told the local media in Nadeem's village on Sunday that gifting a buffalo is considered "very valuable" and "honourable" in their village. Nadeem clinched the gold medal by breaking Olympic record throw of 92.97 metres, previous edition's gold medallist, India's Neeraj Chopra won the silver medal.
"Nadeem also takes great pride in his roots and despite the success, his home still remains his village and he still lives with his parents and brothers," said Nawaz as quoted by PTI.
Nawaz had four sons and three daughters, and his youngest daughter, Ayesha, was married to Nadeem. Nawaz also disclosed that the couple has two sons and a daughter. The father-in-law also said that when he decided to marry his daughter to Nadeem, he was a man of limited means but had the hunger to do well in sports for which he used to train in village fields.
"When we decided to marry our daughter to Nadeem six years back, at that time he used to do small jobs and run errands but was extremely passionate about his sport and constantly practised throwing the javelin at home and in the fields," said Nawaz.
Nawaz added that he was very happy with Nadeem's success and fame, adding that the javelin thrower, who became the first individual medallist from the country, was very respectful towards everyone.
"Whenever he comes to our house he never complains about anything and eats whatever is there at our home,"Two of his children have started going to the local primary school in the village while one son is still very young" added Nadeem.
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