Olympics and Pakistan: 32 years empty

Pakistan last won a medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, 32 years ago today, and that too a bronze in hockey.

How long is it? Infer from this that all the Pakistani athletes participating in the Paris Olympics were not even born at that time.

In these Olympics, 10,500 athletes from 206 countries around the world will compete for more than 1,000 gold, silver or bronze medals in 32 different sports.

Seven players from the Pakistan team, consisting of three women and four men, are participating in the Olympics, accompanied by 11 officials in Paris.

Among them, there is only one athlete, Javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, who has the ability to light up the darkness on Pakistan’s Olympic medal table.

In the Olympics held in Tokyo three years ago, Pakistan’s squad consisted of 10 players, most of whom went on wild cards.

As expected, Arshad performed well, but fell just two hands short of a medal, finishing fifth.

Thus, Pakistan became the largest country in the world in terms of population which did not win any medal in the Olympics.

Will Pakistani players be able to show themselves in Paris this time? Before mentioning this, let’s take a quick look at the history.

The Olympics were held in London in 1948, almost a year after the creation of Pakistan. The country was not yet fully on its feet, resources were scarce, hence no medal.

After that, it was the same in the next time in Helsinki, but in Melbourne Olympics in 1956, Pakistan had to bear the stain of defeat in the hockey final against the rival India, but at least they got a silver medal, which was Pakistan’s first Olympic medal. was

The next time this stain was washed away and Pakistan defeated India in the hockey final in the 1960 Rome Olympics, not only avenged the previous defeat but also managed to win the gold medal for the first time.

India also did not take long to level the score and beat Pakistan in the final in the next Olympics. After this, Pakistan again won the gold medal the next time.

It was a time when Pakistan and India completely dominated the hockey world and did not allow any other team to come close.

From then till 1992, Pakistan continued to win one or the other medal in hockey. In Barcelona in 1992, under the leadership of Shehbaz Senior, Pakistan won the bronze medal. That day and today, the slate is blank.

This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).

Apart from hockey, Pakistan has won a medal in any other sport only twice, a bronze medal won by wrestler Muhammad Basheer in Rome in 1960 and a bronze medal by boxer Hussain Shah at the 1986 Seoul Olympics.

Thus, if the balance is added, since the beginning till now 224 athletes of Pakistan have participated in 18 Olympics and won a total of 10 medals, including three gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

Eight of these medals have been given to Pakistan by hockey, but unfortunately in the previous and recent Olympics, the hockey team could not qualify, so that door was closed.

However, the disappointment of Pakistanis was reduced a little by knowing that in terms of medals per capita, Pakistan is slightly ahead of the countries of its regions. Bangladesh have not won a medal till date, so they are in the zero box.

India, with a population of 1.4 billion, has so far won only 35 medals, and their per-medal population is 40 million, while Pakistan’s figure is around 2.5 million.

Now coming to the recent Olympics, i.e. Paris 2024, as we mentioned above, seven athletes from Pakistan will try their luck in it.

Apart from Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, most of the athletes participating in these events are marksmen. Ghulam Mustafa Bashir, Ghulam Joseph, Kashmala Talat, are shooters in different fields.

Apart from this, Jahan Ara Nabi is participating in swimming, while Faiqa Riaz will participate in 100 meters and Mohammad Ahmed Durrani in 200 meters.

Apart from Arshad Nadeem, Kashmala Talat can also be expected to bring a medal to Pakistan. He has won bronze medal in Asian Games.

Also, if the players who have gone, win anything, it will be considered a bonus.