Arshad Nadeem’s historic Olympic gold: Reactions of Pakistan’s wickedly witty twitteratti range from sublime to ridiculous

Cricketers trolled, a dairy brand in Mian Channu plugged into timelines, and AI summoned for a ridiculous projection of how far Arshad Nadeem could throw – Pakistan social media stayed buzzing, with pop patriotism and wry self-deprecation a day after their famous gold was won with monster near-93 throws.

Top of the list was the fast bowler dreaded in the 90s in India, the tormentor Shoaib Akhtar, whose one word appreciation post on twitter was slated for the poor quality of the screenshot. Akhtar had captioned it ‘Shehzadaaa.’ But Pakistan’s wickedly witty twitteratti didn’t let go of the opportunity of chuckling at their fastest pace bowler whose screenshot was extremely blurred, possibly on eyecam. It’s when a clever handle, asked of Akhtar in all seriousness: ‘Is he watching on Radio”

One of the most viral threads was started by @Sydzainraza, who noted “If Wasim Akram was there he’d say “I had a chat with Arshad Nadeem this morning”, mimicking the legend’s ability to claim good shepherding of every big talent.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Athletics – Men’s Javelin Throw Final – Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France – August 08, 2024. Gold medallist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan celebrates after setting a new Olympic record. REUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel

It precipitated further dragging of other cricket icons who have ruled since 1992, the last time Pakistan won an Olympic medal (Hockey bronze) and the Cricket World Cup. @MDUmairKh would chime in with, “‘He’s quite a character,” Ramiz Raja”, the former batsman’s go-to descriptor.

Roasting of 1992 heroes was in full swing with @AlfaaaazMere, chirping, “If Waqar Younis was there he would be calling him Arshad Iqbal” apparently for his habit in mixing up names.

Other clichés like “See the flick of the wrist” (@zainali4) drew plenty of merriment even as Babar Azam was generously, randomly and needlessly slathered with a fresh round of criticism, for not winning much.

Then there was @ohnoanywayy who pulled out another derivative meme – of the Turkish shooter who made all fancily funded pistol pushers with sights and ear muffles look silly, by just turning up in a white tee and track pants for his mixed team silver. The Nadeem comparison was with a geared-to-the-gills Serbian shooter, reading “Other players with all necessary Javelin Training machines and Coaches’, while the Turkiye dude was ‘Arshad with Desi ghee.’

He was gently reminded that not receiving government support was not something to be really proud of, as the thread abruptly stopped.

Not even remotely governed by ambush-marketing pouncings, the Mian Channu sleepy town was urged by @pistaspaghettti, to drop in at her mamu’s Dairy shop, that was sending 20kg Desi ghee to Arshad’s house rn (right now). “Shameless dairy promo. If you want biceps as big as Arshad, buy milk and ghee from Xxxx Dairies, Main Bazar. May you bring the next gold for Pakistan,” it said.

In an appreciation tweet for Mian Channu, Punjab the twitter user claimed the city had supported Arshad when not many knew of him. The handle added: “when the rest of the country didn’t even know there exists a game called javelin, it was this city that believed in arshad. islamia girls college se Xxxx dairies tak screens ke saamnay beth ke hum ne wo matches dekhayn hain. mian channu actually collected money to send arshad for commonwealth championship bcs govt gave no funds or support. the jatt and rajput community of channu are really hospitable and lovely. finally getting the recognition we deserved!”

A prior instance of cricketer Asif Ali being gifted a buffalo (fake news) was also recalled, though the apocryphal tale travelled long like the 92m of javelin, and it was declared guzzling dairy milk was the only ‘love language’ Pakistani Punjab knew.

Paris 2024 Olympics – Athletics – Men’s Javelin Throw Final – Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France – August 08, 2024. Gold medallist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan celebrates. REUTERS/Stephanie

The dairy mamu’s niece was speedily chastised by reminding her of a 23 November 2023 post of Arshad’s, where he speaks in his Inzy-earnestness about the new Olympic champion leading the #transfatsfreepakistan hashtag. The post demanded a mandatory national limit of 2g of industrially produced TFA per 100g of total fat in all foods across Pakistan, as Arshad spoke of the harmful effects of excessive fat on cardiac health.

There was an overwhelming number of requests urging that the country’s pampered cricketers (“nakaara”) ought to now be replaced by Nadeem on giant highway hoardings selling soft drinks, car tyres, sim cards and Bata footwear.

The handle @ahtisam_mehmood got carried away and predicted that if Arshad threw at an angle higher than 31.36 degrees, roughly going up to 45 degrees, instead of 92.97 his throw could be 102.9metres. It was, the user said, “a throw that would become unbeatable in the upcoming 100 years of Olympics.” The post was complete with physics diagrams, from ChatGPT projections on the velocity-distance (aero)dynamic.

• Paris Olympics: Vinesh Phogat denied on the cusp of ultimate glory, another entry in her diary of heartbreaks
• Paris Olympics: See how far my son’s gone, says Arshad Nadeem's father
• Harmanpreet leads with his goals, Sreejesh gets his fitting farewell as Indian hockey team gets back-to-back bronze

The AI generated dreamy math fizzled out a tad though, when someone pointed out the javelin might end up spearing someone in the crowd, if Arshad Nadeem reached his pro-max potential. Pakistan was ranging from sublime to ridiculous, the day after their man jogged up and wound up with the Olympic record.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.