Talal Dar Sports Journalist
It is said that nations who forget their heroes, are also forgotten by the history. Unfortunately, Pakistanis are also not very good at remembering their sports heroes. Growing up in a sports loving family, I started going to sports grounds with my father as a toddler. I was only 8-year-old when I watched 2000 Olympics on TV, and one question came to my mind while watching it. I wondered who won the first ever medal for Pakistan.
My father used to go to sports events all over the world and when he went to 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. He met a former Indian wrestler there, who asked my father where is Din Muhammad now? Now many reading this would not know who Din Muhammad is. I would not blame them, because even the higher authorities related to sports did not know him.
Din Muhammad was the wrestler who had won the first ever gold medal for Pakistan in 1954 Asian Games. But when my father returned from England and started searching for him, he could not find that sports hero of Pakistan. He asked many wrestlers and people responsible for taking care of sportsmen, but some said that Din Muhammad had gone abroad and some thought that he had died.
My father kept searching for him and it was Eid day in 2010, when my father finally got a call from someone that Din Muhammad has been found. We were about to go outside to enjoy the Eid when our father told us that we will go to meet the legend on the same day.
We were very disappointed to see his house in a village near Wahga border. The great wrestler was living in a house made up of mud and in a state which cannot be described in words. He was 85-year-old and living in a miserable condition.
My father asked him about his achievement and then he told us the story when he had won the first ever gold medal. Din Muhammad told us that he belonged to a very poor family. He started wrestling in his village as events were arranged there during the festivals. He used to do good so a coach took him to Lahore city and made him wrestle with others. He did well and was selected for the tour of Manila, Philippines for Asian Games.
Din Muhammad defeated the Indian wrestler to win the historic gold medal for Pakistan. But when he went to podium to receive his medal, the organizers did not have the flag and national anthem of Pakistan, as flag medal winning nation is hoisted and their national anthem is played. The organizers said that the flag of India will be hoisted and their anthem will be played, as he represented them in the past, but Din Muhammad refused to receive medal in such circumstances.
The flag and national anthem of Pakistan were arranged from embassy and then Din Muhammad received the gold medal. But when he came back, he did not get the respect he deserved. No one encouraged or rewarded him for his record so he left wrestling and started living a normal life like a poor person.
When we asked Din Muhammad why he not allowed his children to become wrestlers, he said he was very disappointed and did not want them to ruin their life by becoming a wrestler. My father took him to many media channels and made sure that Din Muhammad got some recognition for his achievement. He was granted some funds, which were not as much as he deserved.
There is a lesson for all of us in this story of Din Muhammad. We, as a nation, only focus on cricket. But we forget that Cricket is played by only 12 test playing nations and is not even an Olympics sports. Other sports are more followed world wide but we do not know sports personalities from other fields. We must remember our heroes who achieved so much for country, because our sports are in the state of shambles, because we did not honour such heroes.
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