India, Aug. 8 -- That hot, humid night in Tokyo, standing in an eerily empty Olympic stadium as a typhoon approached the coast, did Neeraj Chopra think of the ripples his historic gold might cause?

At the time, in 2021, Chopra was a freak occurrence: no one had seen a javelin thrower from India, or in fact from anywhere in South Asia, make it to an Olympic final, let alone win the thing.

Today, South Asia is the epicentre of the javelin throw. It is the sport's powerhouse, the place from where its top contenders come. By the next edition of the Games, Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem, who finished fifth in Tokyo, was on the podium, becoming the first individual Olympic gold-medallist from his country at Paris 2024.

Nadeem grew up so poor in Pa...