Video of Arshad Nadeem dedicating Olympics gold medal win to Pakistanis

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and determined that it is misleading.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify team examined the clip of Arshad’s interview and investigated it.

Multiple social media users were sharing a video on social media platform X on August 9, 2024, of Arshad Nadeem dedicating his gold medal win to Pakistanis. However, the video is from the Commonwealth Games 2022, not the Olympics 2024.

The superstar athlete set a new Olympic record on August 8 in the men’s javelin final in Paris and won Pakistan’s first gold medal in 40 years. His throw was Pakistan’s first individual gold medal, first track and field medal and the second time a South Asian has had a podium finish in track and field.

HOW IT STARTED

On August 9, 2024, a user, claiming to be the chairman of the National Peace Committee for Interfaith Harmony and who appears to be a PTI supporter based on his past posts, shared an interview clip of Arshad, originally taken from social media platform TikTok as it showed a watermark of a user named “sardar_dani07”.

The caption for the post said: “I am told that your entire nation is awake to see your victory, I dedicate my victory to my nation: Gold medalist Arshad Nadeem.”

The video gained over 237,000 views and was reshared 6,800 times.

The clip was reposted by another X user with the same caption and gained over 331,000 views.

Another user, who appeared to be a PML-N supporter based on his past posts, also shared the same video with the same caption and racked up over 9,800 views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality, keen public interest in Arshad after his Olympic victory and because some users in the comments were saying the video was not related to the Paris Games 2024.

Examining the video showed that Arshad’s name tag in the interview introduced him as “Gold medalist, Commonwealth Games”.

A reverse image search of the video yielded a YouTube video dated August 8, 2022, on a channel called “Janta Ka Reporter”, run by veteran Indian journalist Rifat Jawaid.

Arshad could be seen in the video talking about his 2022 Commonwealth Games win for the javelin throw event and dedicating his gold medal to the people of Pakistan.

FACT CHECK STATUS: MISLEADING

The claim regarding a viral video showing Arshad Nadeem’s interview after his Olympic win and dedicating the gold medal to the people of Pakistan is misleading.

The video is from 2022 when the athlete won his gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and omitting this vital context and detail while circulating the video the day after his Olympic victory has the potential to misguide and confuse the public.

Evidence and References

August 8, 2022, Arshad Nadeem’s interview
https://youtu.be/9yN99_s28g4?si=9laLJdDgUxjK7jEy